In The Ashes Of Ascalon
by Vivli
Summary: A young necromancer searches for her sister lost in the ashes of Ascalon after the Searing, teaming up with an inexperienced mesmer and a mysterious elementalist along the way...
1. Prologue

**DISCLAIMER (Look Mommy, I remembered!): I don't own Guild Wars, nor do I own NC Soft or Arena Net. I don't own the world, I didn't make up the setting. A short list of other things I do not own (but would like to) includes: a time machine, a space ship of some kind, magical powers and a dog. I did make up the storyline, however I wouldn't really claim I 'own it'. I just wrote it. All copyrights belong to NC Soft and Arena Net. Please don't sue me.**

**Author's Note: Hi everybody! Sorry about the sarcastic disclaimer, I'm tired and in a strange mood. Thanks for taking an interest in this story. Hopefully you'll find the time to leave a review and tell me what you think. Good or bad, I don't care! Either way, I hope you enjoy it.**

**If you've played Guild Wars, you can skip this paragraph (which I'm assuming most people who will look at this have). I have a few readers from the FFXI section when I wrote fan fiction there, and I don't know whether they'll want to read this if they like my writing. Yes, I know it's arrogant to assume that, but in case they do I'll use these notes to explain bits of Guild Wars that non-players may not get. So, first up: Ascalon and the Charr. Ascalon is one of the main three kingdoms of the world, set in idealistic green fields with farmland and the like. That is, until the Searing. An army of evil beasts called the Charr which Ascalon have always been able to hold back attacked the city using immense magical power to rain fire down upon it. It was literally scorched and destroyed, that even becoming known as the Searing. This prologue takes place _before _the Searing, and the rest of the story afterwards. In the game, you get to play before the Searing for a moment before you see it destroyed and your character goes 'on patrol' for two years, returning to the destroyed Ascalon where you start playing in the world proper. Hopefully everything else is easy to pick up, and if anything comes up in later chapters, I'll make sure to note it and explain it (if I figure out I have any non-Guild Wars playing readers….or any readers at all for that matter).**

**The characters in this are all played by people, but the characters I've gone for only have slightly similar traits as I tried to make them different and interesting. If anybody wants one, I may go back and edit a character list in here. Otherwise, you can stop reading boring notes from the author now and read the actual story.**

**IN THE ASHES OF ASCALON**

**PROLOGUE**

_Come on Leine, you can do this._

The green fields of Ascalon stretched out before Leine as she stood in the mighty city's exit, quickly reconsidering her current plan. The grass swayed in the wind, the warm air seemingly inviting her to step out.

_Yeah, step out and get ambushed by a million monsters._

She gulped. She had come this far. She had done all of her training, she was ready. She was just nervous. It was natural, she convinced herself. She finally took the step, her high heeled boot touching down with a satisfying click on the stone. She quickly walked onto the dusty path, which in turn muffled her footsteps, which she was glad of. Noise attracted monsters, or so her paranoid mind told herself. The sun was hot, too hot. Leine had the collar on her tight white mesmer garb perked up to protect her neck, her unusually pale complexion would otherwise be burnt to a crisp. She was hoping not literally.

_Maybe I should go back._

She convinced herself to stop making excuses and moved on. The wind blew and her blonde hair was blown across her eyes. She sighed, frustrated. Now it was all out of place. Maybe she should go out when it was less windy. Or get a hat. Or a hair band. Or-

The plans forming in her mind to delay her necessary adventuring were interrupted as a small creature began to crawl towards her. A river skale. It looked at her for a moment and she froze.

_Remember why you're out here. You're out here to get used to this sort of thing._

Her thoughts were useless as her entire body was frozen in fear. She couldn't tell if it was going to attack or not, but was too frightened to take any chances. She quickly got to casting a spell, that should sort it out. She cast the one that came most naturally to her, and watched it take effect. She then paused in horrific realisation.

Empathy. A simple spell, where the attacker feels pain as it attacks, a kind of enforced empathic relationship with its victim. A beautifully simple spell, and key to Leine's training as a mesmer. Unfortunately, for the spell to have any effect at all, Leine would have to take the hits. She shut her eyes and squealed as the creature swiped at her, knocking her off her feet. She crashed down, clutching her stomach in pain. The river skale jerked back, before shaking its head in confusion. It couldn't quite understand why it was hurt, but was sure the cause was that pesky girl. It decided the only solution was to keep hitting her. River skales are not smart creatures. Unfortunately, neither was Leine, because she was now sprawled in too much pain to move, facing the monster. It hopped towards her again, and dropped dead. She blinked, looking up in confusion.

"And I thought mesmers hated getting dirty." Came a sarcastic voice. Leine struggled to her feet, still clutching her stomach. A woman stood before Leine with a cocky grin. She walked towards her, sheathing her bow. Her long red hair flowed behind her like a cape. She wore the traditional brown ranger clothes, which generally looked mismatched, made from whatever resources she could find clearly. Leine couldn't help but think how it looked ugly, and how she wouldn't be caught dead wearing it. She was already scrubbing frantically at the dirt on her own clothes. The woman laughed. "Maybe I'm just stereotyping." She added sarcastically.

"Be quiet." Leine said in her fairly upper class accent.

"Hey, I just saved you!" The ranger pointed out.

"You did?" Leine looked at the dead skale, with the arrow lodged in its head. "Oh. Urm, thank you." She bowed awkwardly. "I was in a bit of trouble there."

"New at this?" The ranger laughed. "I'm Arziel." She held out a hand, and Leine took it cautiously. Arziel shook hard, and Leine recoiled her arm quickly. Arziel laughed. "Can I ask a question? What's with the mask?" Leine wore a green mask across her face, a mesmer tradition, one that surrounded her eyes and was ordained with green and gold.

"It's so people can't recognise me." Leine answered simply.

"I don't think anybody out here _knows _you." Arziel pointed out.

"I'm Leine Chuth. I'm sure they'll have heard of me!" Leine said proudly. Arziel blinked.

"Who?" She asked. Leine folded her arms.

"You know, the actress?" Arziel kept her blank look. "I do plays over at the theatre." Still blank. "Oh come on, you've never seen a play?"

"Not with you in." Arziel answered smugly. "Beside, don't actors were masks during the performances?"

"Well, yes." Leine admitted.

"So we wouldn't be able to recognise you anyway." Arziel pointed out, having far to much fun winding Leine up.

"Well, I suppose." Leine sighed.

"Not to mention you're apparently nowhere near as famous as you would have liked." Arziel continued. "And judging by people who like to think they're famous, that means you won't want to _actually_ hide it, because you desperately want to be recognised."

"What are you saying?" Leine sounded slightly upset.

"I'm saying take the goofy mask off." Arziel answered. Leine blushed before doing so.

"Now my face is going to get sunburnt." She complained.

"If you hadn't spent so long indoors in the first place you wouldn't have that problem." Arziel recognised pale skin as a sign of people who at least liked to _think _they were rich enough to never go outside. Leine was clearly backtracking on this a bit. "So, what are you actually trying to do?" Leine blushed again, this time very brightly.

"I-urm. I-" She paused. "I got kicked out of the theatre." She finally admitted. Arziel couldn't hold back a laugh. She wanted to, she could see that Leine was upset, but it was just too funny. She laughed long and hard before finally coming back to face Leine, who looked like she was either going to cry or run away. Luckily she did neither.

"So you came out here?" Arziel asked.

"They said I was a little drama queen, so I might make a good mesmer." Leine pouted. "I've been doing the training, and this is my first attempt to go outside, without an escort at least."

"Did it occur to you they may be joking?" Arziel questioned. Leine just crossed her arms in frustration. "Okay, look, I don't want to have to hear about a dead mesmer tomorrow. Why don't you try to find my sister?"

"Sister?" Leine asked.

"Yeah." Arziel answered. "She's just started out too. A necromancer, she didn't want to follow _my _example apparently."

"Necromancer?" Leine shuddered. They were creepy.

"Yeah. A necromancer. Don't tell me you have issues with those as well." Arziel sighed.  
"No. They're fine." Leine squeaked.

"You should get on alright. She's a very controlled, calm, in charge sort." Arziel began.

"YEEHAH! COME GET SOME!" A voice suddenly screamed over the hills. A purple haired girl ran down the grass and turned, firing bolts of green energy from the end of her staff. A hoard of grawl, about six in total, were in close pursuit.

"Of course, I could be wrong on that matter." Arziel sighed as she saw her sister. The grawl were far more dangerous than the simple river skale Leine had fought, being monstrous creatures with enough intelligence to fashion simple weapons, and enough aggressive instinct to use them.

"THAT ALL YOU GOT?" The woman screamed.

"Maialin!" Arziel snapped.

"Oh, hi, sis." Maialin beamed. "Little busy right now."

"I can see that." Arziel growled. "What the hell do you think your doing."

"Relax, it's under control." Maialin laughed.

"I count six grawl there. You tell me how that's under control!" Arziel scolded.

"Just give me a second to-" Arziel was already firing arrows. One of the grawl went down quickly. "Hey! These are my kills!" The necromancer protested. "Fine! I'll show you what I can do!" Maialin quickly cast something, and the sickening noise of bones and flesh mutating filled the air. From the corpse of the fallen grawl rose a new beast, a mangle of flesh and bone. A bone horror, bound to server their necromancer master until they perish. Leine suddenly became even paler, throwing a gloved hand up to her mouth. The bone horror ran, struggling on its reconstructed legs, to attack the grawl hoard. The grawl piled on it, quickly ripping it apart, but Arziel took out two more of the beasts as they did so. The grawl turned and decided to retreat seeing a battle that they could not win. Maialin laughed in victory.

"Yeah you better run!" She called.

"Sis!" Arziel cried. "That was just plain reckless. You could have gotten killed."

"A pretty girl like me?" Maialin skipped around. "I don't think so. Those guards would have come running the moment I got in trouble."

"And what about her?" Arziel pointed to Leine, who was shaking, staring at the fallen bone horror and feeling very sick.

"Well, I guess she's fairly attractive. They might have saved her, were I not around to grab their attention." Maialin answered.

"I meant she could have gotten killed!" Arziel snapped. "You need to be more respectful."

"Yeah, fancy me having fun. I'm a bad ranger!" Maialin sarcastically shouted at herself. "Oh wait, I'm _not _a ranger at all! That's right! Guess you're in no position of authority over me!"

"Maia, this is serious." Arziel groaned. "You're going to be Charr meat if you aren't careful."

"We could fight Charr?" Leine suddenly whimpered.

"Only if you're stupid." Maialin replied. "So looking at you, I'd guess 'yes'."

"Hey!" Leine protested, but that was as far as he got. She didn't really have a much better come back.

"Maia, this is your new partner." Arziel said proudly.

"Wha?" Maialin answered in shock. "You want me to go drown her for you?"

"No. She's new. You're new. Maybe the two of you can keep each other in check." Arziel explained. "She's too scared to do anything, and you're so reckless you do everything. I figure you must find a happy medium."

"Don't pretend you won't be watching over me sis." Maialin mocked. "I can do whatever I want 'coz you won't let me get hurt."

"Maia, that's the exact kind of attitude that's going to get both of us killed." Arziel sighed.

Leine shuffled from foot to foot awkwardly, having the incredible urge to just turn around and run away. She had no particular urge to get involved with either of these two. But she had to admit, they were probably going to help her. She clearly didn't stand much of a chance on her own, and she could use the back up. She rubbed her stomach. It hurt from where she had taken the hit. It had just been a light blow, doing little more than knocking the wind out of her, but it still hurt.

"Maybe I'll just go back to town." She said sheepishly, deciding she had had enough adventure for one day.

"Oh no you don't!" Maialin cried. "If I have to get lumbered with some tarty mesmer, we're at least doing something fun."

"Tarty?" Leine repeated, confused.

"Look, whatever you two do, don't get into trouble." Arziel warned. "I'm not going to be there to bail you out."

"Where you goin', sis?" Maialin asked with genuine interest.

"I'm going to meet Vahlahn, if you must know." Arziel grumbled.

"Oh, your boyfriend." Maialin laughed.

"He is _not _my boyfriend." Arziel snapped.

"Well, with his stamina, I'd think not." Maialin joked.

"There is nothing wrong with his stamina." Arziel sounded like she was about to explode.

"Oh, you know, do you?" Maialin mocked.

"Maialin. One day, you'll anger the wrong person and they'll skin you alive." Arziel said through gritted teeth.

"That's okay. Hopefully by then I'll have transplanted my consciousness into an all powerful lich and have no need for skin." Maialin replied casually. Leine shuddered again. Arziel just shook her head and walked away.

Vahlahn was stood upon the northern wall of Ascalon, dressed in a long grey coat with purple trim, heavy boots and grey trousers. His light blue hair danced in the wind as he watched the wilderness beyond. Arziel walked up behind him. He knew she was there.

"Took you long enough." He laughed.

"I had to baby-sit Maialin again." Arziel explained. "She's so reckless she's going to get herself killed, I know it."

"I'm sure she'll be fine." Vahlahn replied. "Provided Ascalon is."

"What do you mean by that?" Arziel asked curiously.

"The Charr are up to something." He explained. "They've been buzzing around all day."

"Probably just another suicide charge on the wall. I wouldn't worry about it." Arziel said softly.

"It's unusually co-ordinated. I think they're planning something." Vahlahn told her.

"Shall we go out and investigate?" Arziel suggested.

"And you call Maialin reckless." Sighed Vahlahn.

Maialin was looking up and down Leine like she was delivering an inspection. Leine was the same height as Maialin, and both were short. Of course, Leine was in high heeled boots which meant she was even shorter, and Maialin made sure to remember that so that she could make 'shorty' jokes at an appropriate time.

"What are you doing?" Leine asked angrily.

"Just seeing what I can figure out about you." Maialin answered.

"You could ask." Leine grumbled.

"This is more fun." Maialin replied. Leine folded her arms, deciding to look over Maialin in the same way. She had purple hair, long strands fallen forwards over one eye, and was clad in tight black and crimson armour, which exposed the top of her breasts in a way Leine considered vulgar. A red cape hung from her back, ordained with a golden symbol. Now that Leine came to think of it, Arziel had been wearing a similar cape. "We belong to a guild." Maialin said. "Knew I was good at reading people. You were wondering why me and Arziel wore capes, right?"

"Urm. Yes." Leine answered. "A guild? Which one?"

"Gates of Divinity." Maialin answered proudly.

"I've never heard of them." Leine said plainly.

"Well, we're a small group." She paused. "Very small. Me and sis formed it. Well, her and her not-boyfriend Vahlahn, then they let me in."

"Could I join?" Leine asked hopefully. "I want to start adventuring and joining a guild is a good way to go about it."

"Well, joining is a long, drawn out process." Maialin began. "There are many challenges you must face. Such as the challenge of buying Maialin's food for a week. Or the challenge of doing all of Maialin's chores. Or the challenge of-"

"I get the idea." Grumbled Leine. "I think I'll pass." She sighed.  
"Right. I think I got you figured. What's your name?" Maialin asked.

"Leine Chuth." Leine answered proudly, looking for any spark of recognition in Maialin's eyes. There was none. She sighed.

"Right. Leine. You're a very formal person, your parents are rich, too rich for you to be doing this, your petrified of me and even more scared of the environment, far vainer than you'd like me to think and really irritated that I can read you so well." Maialin smirked.

"You should be a psychic." Leine said irritably.

"See? Irritated." Maialin folded her arms and Leine groaned in frustration.  
"You missed the important bit." Leine shot.

"If I missed something, then it means I was right on the rest of the stuff." Maialin grinned. Leine sighed.

"I meant you missed that I'm an actress." She said proudly.

"Oh, I figured 'drama queen'." Maialin laughed.  
"Why does everybody say that?" Leine asked nobody in particular.

"What plays you've been in, oh famous-nobody's-heard-of-actress?" Maialin asked.

"I was in the Seven Sisters most recently." Maialin said proudly.

"Oh! Wait! I saw that!" Maialin laughed. "I know you! Oh god, you completely butchered that role."

"I did _not_!" Leine snapped.

"You did so! Way to overact! I mean, you completely missed the subtleties of the character." Maialin told her.

"I simply put a new spin on an established character." Leine explained.

"Yeah, by playing it crap." Maialin laughed. "God, I hope you're a better mesmer than you are an actress."

"Hey! I-" Leine suddenly froze as something echoed across the landscape. "Did you just hear something?"

"Yeah. It sounded like some kind of a roar." Maialin said slowly.

"We need to get to the city, and quickly." Leine decided, running without waiting for Maialin.

Vahlahn stopped dead in his tracks.

"What the hell are they doing?" He whispered to Arziel. The Charr were gathered, chanting around huge burning flames.

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like it." Arziel replied. "We don't stand a chance. We can't disrupt it, not just us two."

"Shall we go back to the wall and warn the guard?" Vahlahn suggested.

"It's a good idea." Arziel decided. "We'll need to be quick. This can't be good, whatever it is."

"I'm right behind you." Vahlahn told her.

Maialin passed Leine easily and skidded to a stop at the entrance to the city. Leine caught up, panting heavily.

"Awww, somebody not been doing her exercise?" Mocked Maialin.  
"Shut up." Leine gasped. "We need to get inside."

"What's your problem? It's just the Charr being odd again." Maialin laughed.

"Then why did you run?" Leine said, hand on her chest as she breathed heavily.

"Well, I'm no match for a Charr." She admitted. "If one had gotten to us, we'd of been in trouble."

"Perhaps we should find your sister." Leine suggested between breaths. "She may be able to help us."

"Wow. A good idea from a mesmer." Maialin remarked. "She'll probably be up by the wall. Let's get a move on." There was a sudden sound and the two women looked to the sky. Leine shrieked, and Maialin tensed up.

Fire rained from the sky.

Ascalon burnt.


	2. Two Years Later

**Author's Note: As the title of this chapter says, this takes place two years later, like in the game. I've tried to change Maialin's character as a result, I'm not sure how it turned out. I think she seems a little erratic. But I guess it's kind of logical.**

**Thanks for the review by the way, Mr Anonymous, I don't mean to be picky, because I really like reviews, but it would be nice if you could tell me what you thought of the story. I do agree though, this section really needs to get going. Guild Wars is a fantastic game, so there should be more writers (and hopefully, more reviewers!).**

**TWO YEARS LATER**

Maialin stopped for a breath, wiping the sweat from her brow. Ascalon had always been hot, but it was as if the Searing had scorched the very atmosphere that kept the full force of the sun from them. Of course, it could be that there were no more pleasant fields or cooling rivers to absorb the heat, just dull dead rock and bubbling tar pits. She took a deep breath. She was home. Ascalon City. Or what was left of it. The ruins were still scattered around, even after two years nobody had been able to clear them up. Street vendors stood around with makeshift stands to display their wears. Maialin laughed to herself. How ironic. Even after the very city had been scorched and thousands killed the citizens of Ascalon still wouldn't pass up an opportunity to make a profit. Maybe they had deserved the Searing. If they hadn't been so caught up in their petty battles they would have seen it coming, but humans had been too busy warring with other humans.

She tried to shake the feeling that the two years had changed her. She liked to think of herself as the same person, but thoughts like that were unnatural to her. She had to expect them, she'd been away, fighting the Charr with the army. She'd signed up a few months after the Searing, desperate to make a difference, desperate to get vengeance. Except it hadn't been like that at all. Beaten at every turn, they couldn't drive the Charr back. How could you win a war you had already lost? And now, she was back, and not under a flag of honour, or a returning hero, but a disgraced soldier thrown out of the army. She sighed. They'd be dead if it wasn't for her, but they still threw her out.

Worse yet, she never found her. Arziel had been missing since the Searing, but she wasn't dead. Maialin knew that much. Arziel was a survivor above everything else. Maialin figured that she had joined up with another patrol, and stuck with them, but in all the time away, she never found her. More than once she had considered the worse, but she simply _knew _she was still alive. She had to be.

Maialin rolled her eyes, passing a stand selling dyes. Dyes? At a time like this? Where did vanity fit into a destroyed world? Dozens of people dying every day, tens of thousands already dead, people giving their very lives on a regular basis just to keep the people cowering in this city safe, and people were concerned over what _colour _their clothes were? Maialin was disgusted. And people were actually buying them! Like-

"Leine?" She said in shock.

"Maialin?" Leine suddenly exclaimed, turning around. She ran up and hugged the shocked necromancer. "You're still alive! I haven't seen you in _years!_"

"Yeah, ever since I decided to leave and fight and you cowered behind." Maialin said bitterly. Leine recoiled, a little surprised.

"Maia, I didn't want to join the army." Leine explained. "You know that."

"Because you were afraid." Maialin stated simply.

"Of course I was afraid!" Leine protested. "They killed everybody I knew!"

"Everybody except me and Arziel." Maialin countered.  
"Maialin! Pay attention, it's been two years! Nobody's seen or heard from Arziel. She's dead." Leine argued, wondering how what should have been a happy meeting between old friends had gone down hill so quickly.

"Don't ever say that again." Maialin growled, getting ready to draw her weapon. Leine sighed.

"I'm sorry, Maia." She said quietly. "It's good to see you again. I was afraid you weren't coming back."

"What's going on here?" Maialin asked in shock. "Stores selling stuff. People making profit. We've been out there dying for you and you concern yourself with petty crap like this!" She took the dye from Leine and held it up in front of her.

"Maia, people are trying to get things back to normal." Leine explained, snatching the dye back. "And _this _is for a play."

"A _what_?" Maialin gasped in disbelief.

"Oh, it's not like you think!" Leine said quickly to defend herself. "We do stories of the heroics of you guys. To try and raise moral. You know how it is."

"So you play little games pretending to be soldiers?" Maialin scowled.

"Come on, Maia, don't be like that. I may not be a warrior, but I can entertain. It makes people feel good, and it makes them realise the sacrifices people like you are making." Leine begged. "I'm only trying to help."

"Try helping out there, then." Maialin suggested.

"Doing what? The wall keeps the Charr back. Do you really think we can reclaim the whole of Ascalon?" Leine looked around with a sigh. "Sometimes I think Prince Rurik is right."

"You've heard his plan too?" Maialin was slightly surprised.

"We did a play on Prince Rurik and his arguments with the King." Leine explained. "It was a public awareness thing. We wanted to make everybody aware of the two sides of the argument. Run away to Kryta or stay here and fight for Ascalon." She paused. "Urm, it wasn't written very well." She blushed. "We were supposed to make it non-bias, but I kind of ended up leaning towards running away."

"Wait, you _write _them?" Maialin asked, surprised.

"Well, apparently I'm a terrible over-acting actress, so I took up writing instead." Leine smirked slightly.

"You're never going to forget I called you that, are you?" Maialin laughed, their old friendship shining through.

"Well, I am in a lot of the plays." Leine admitted. "Actors are short, you understand."

"Yes, I can see that." Maialin went up on her tip toes, looking down on Leine.

"Not that kind of short." Leine grumbled. "I meant there aren't many."

"Too many people doing worthwhile things." Maialin half joked, but she was partially serious.

"I'm looking to sell a tribal blade!" Somebody cried walking past her, and she cringed.

"Okay, perhaps not." She admitted.

"Come on, Maia, it does help." Leine told her. "Not everything has to be done with the pointy end of a sword, you know?"

"Hell no, I use a staff." Maialin grinned, and for a moment Leine thought she was back to her old light hearted self.

Maialin and Leine had become close friends despite the short time they had known each other. The Searing had killed Leine's family, and separated Maialin from Arziel, meaning all they had was each other. Maialin had done much for Leine at first, who took it far worse than she did. Upper class upbringing is all very well and good until it's gone. Traumatised, Leine had stuck close to Maialin, and Maialin had been glad of it, having lost everybody she cared about. The two had began to fight back at first, trying to stop the Charr from ripping through the city with the Ascalon guard, but Leine took a wound and after that became very withdrawn, too scared to leave the city. Maialin stayed with her for a long time, but began to hate the feeling of not being out there, taking an active role, so joined the army and left. Leine had been far too frightened to go with her, and stayed behind. Meeting each other again was a strange experience, they were good friends, despite their differences. They just about had to be, considering what they had been through.

Leine sighed, deciding she was never going to convince Maialin that what she did was for the good of the people. Maialin had clearly never liked actors or theatre, thinking of it as a waste of time and seeing everybody who acted as vain people who simply wanted to be in the spotlight. Apparently Arziel liked them even less, which made Leine wonder why she had helped her out so long ago. Leine knew defeat, and decided it was time to change the subject.

"So, why are you back?" Leine asked hopefully. "The war over? We win?" She was being sarcastic. It needed no answer. Any hope of winning had long gone. It was a simple case of surviving now.

"I, urm, had some disagreements with my commanders." Maialin explained.

"Disagreements? What happened?" Leine sounded concerned.

"Well, I'm no longer a soldier, for one." Maialin said with an ironic grin.

"You got discharged? What? Why?" Leine asked quickly.

"We got-" Maialin sighed. "We got pinned down. Charr ambushed us. We took cover behind some rocks, but couldn't break out, and they were constantly firing arrows at us. We couldn't move. More and more of us were getting hit." She paused. "Most of us were dead. The rest of us were finished. I-" She gulped. "I started casting my spells. Resurrecting our own dead soldiers as bone horrors, and used them as distractions. We managed to escape. Six of us from a patrol of forty." Leine fell silent.

"I'm sorry, Maia." She said quietly. "I had no idea you went through that." She took a deep breath. "But you saved them all. Why discharge you?"

"Leine. I brought back the corpses of our own fallen soldiers as mutated monsters used only to distract the Charr. They frown on that kind of thing." Leine shuddered at the thought of the bone horrors, they still made her feel faint and sick whenever she saw one.

"But surely they saw it was necessary." Leine argued.

"They said it was better to die with honour than dishonour our fallen comrades." Maialin explained. "I don't care. If they throw me out for saving our patrol, then I'm out. I've had it with Ascalon!" She was clearly getting very angry again, and this time Leine could understand why.

"Maia, I know, it was unfair to throw you-"

"Don't act like your not a part of this!" Maia snapped. "You're half the problem! You and everybody else in this city!" She was now attracting quite a lot of attention. "Going about your petty affairs! Trying to make profit, carrying about money and entertainment instead of all the people dying!"

"Maia, we're just trying to get on with our lives." Leine tried to explain.

"Yeah! While ignoring the sacrifices we've been making!" Maialin yelled. "You're a coward Leine! The only reason you're here is because you broke a nail while fighting!"

"Maia, those Charr ripped right through me." Leine said sadly, holding her side where the scar still was. Maialin's spin on her wound irritated her quite a bit. "I barely recovered, even with those monks healing me."

"Yeah, so instead of getting revenge, you cowered here." Maialin spat.

"Maia, it hurt! I'm not a fighter!" Leine argued back. "I hate the Charr as much as you do, but I don't want to die!"

"Exactly. Coward!" Maia yelled, pushing Leine. Leine fell over backwards, startled at just how strong Maialin had gotten in her years away. Leine looked up, close to tears.

"I did everything I could. I fought at first, didn't I?" She tried to argue, but her voice didn't reach a volume above a croak.

"Didn't we all? But as soon as it was safe to cower, you did so." Maialin sighed. She tried to let the stress fade out of her. Leine was fully crying now, tears streaming down her face. She got up and went to walk away. "I'm sorry Leine. I'm just so angry. So upset. You can't imagine what it's been like out there. And I return to all this. It all seems so _petty_."

"I know, Maia. I understand." Leine sobbed. "I deserved that." Somehow Leine admitting she deserved it just made Maialin feel worse.

"No, you didn't. Nobody did." She sighed. "I just lost it for a moment. I think I need rest. Travelling outside of the city can be stressful."

"My place is still standing, you can still stay there." Leine's house had escaped damage mostly during the Searing. The roof had taken a hit, and caved in on one side, but it hadn't collapsed, and the rest of the rooms were still in one piece. Maialin's home had been totally obliterated in the original assault, but since it had just been a small shack it was unsurprising. Leine's rich background was much clearer upon seeing her home, and Maialin had always felt a little guilty staying there while so many people had to sleep in the streets back before she left on patrol, but now, after so long fighting, she loved the idea of staying in relative luxury. Even if luxury post-Searing just meant a house with more than one room.

Maialin had no idea how long she had slept, but her stomach told her it was at least time for some form of breakfast. She got up sleepily, seeing her armour resting in the corner of the room, but deciding she was far more comfortable not wearing it. It was nice to wake up in a soft bed without being relieved you made it through another night without being ambushed. All the concerns she was used to were gone, she began to understand why Leine and the population of Ascalon were desperate for normality in their lives. She wondered out of the room and down the stairs, remembering the days she had spent clearing the rubble from them. That's when she had learnt to never do any physical work with Leine. She'd just complain about how hard it is and do nothing while the other person did all the work. In truth, Leine had tried, but never being a physical person she couldn't move the rubble herself.

Maialin wondered into the main room at the bottom of the stairs, slightly surprised to see Leine sat at the table looking very worn and tired, clutching a large map.

"What are you doing?" Maialin asked, rubbing her eyes. Leine yawned.

"Oh, I was thinking about what you said yesterday." Leine explained. "I've been busy."

"Have you slept at all?" Maialin questioned, slightly surprised.

"No, didn't have time." Leine explained. "Come here, look." Maialin looked over the map. "Here, to the west of Ascalon." She pointed. "I talked to one of Prince Rurik's men reassigned to be a gate guard, and he said they ran into a ranger and an elementalist there."

"Vahlahn and Arziel?" Maialin suddenly became much more animated, sitting down beside Leine quickly.

"Well, I think so." Leine explained before another sleepy yawn. "That's not all. A lot of the people who were on duty during the Searing report two adventurers helping them out in the defence. Two people not of the army. And they say one was a girl with a bow and one a mage of some kind."

"How did you find all of this out?" Maialin asked.  
"I know a lot of people in the army." Leine told her. "You know, when making the plays, I did a lot of research-" She paused, remembering how much Maialin hated that idea. "Urm, I did a lot of research for the stories we told. I met up with lots of people, I know a lot of contacts."

"At least you have one talent." Maialin joked. "Even if it isn't acting. But what does any of this mean?"

"I think Arziel survived the Searing." Leine explained.

"Well, I figured that." Maialin sighed.

"But judging by the fact she met up with Prince Rurik, and after that nobody heard from her, I think I know where she's gone." Leine smiled slightly.

"Where?" Maialin asked. "How could you figure that out?"

"Rurik's been trying to convince everybody he met of his plan to flee Ascalon, right?" Leine told her. "I think she heard the plan, and went with it."

"What?" Maialin said almost instinctively.

"Well, nobody with that name is in the army, so she didn't join. And she wouldn't have spent the years out there alone without returning." Leine explained. "And if this is their last reported position, it's just a stone's throw away from the Shiverpeak Mountains."

"You think she's in the mountains? With the dwarves?" Maialin asked, slightly shocked.

"It would make sense, if she's not on Kryta by now." Leine explained. Maialin smiled.

"So we need to get to Shiverpeak!" She exclaimed.

"It's a long journey." Leine admitted. "Across the whole of Ascalon. But we can do it!"

"Wait, _we_?" Maialin repeated, surprised.

"I thought about what you said. I've done nothing. I may not be able to fight in the army, but I can help find Arziel." Leine said softly.

"Leine, you haven't set a foot outside of this city since you got hurt, have you?" Maialin asked sceptically.

"Well, it's about time I did, don't you think?" Leine laughed.

"I don't know if you'll be much use." Maialin sighed.

"Hey! I can still cast all my old mesmer spells, ya know?" Leine pointed out. "Besides, you'll need some back up."

"I could hire help." Maialin said. "Better than you getting yourself into trouble."

"I'm touched you care so much." Leine joked. "But I know you, you're too proud to hire help."

"I know what you're like! You complain when you get dust on your boots. How are you going to survive a journey into the mountains?" Maialin pointed out.

"Oh, give me some credit." Leine sighed. "I planned all this didn't I? And you're the one who was yelling at me for not doing anything." Maialin blushed.

"Sorry about that." She laughed.

"So then, I'm going." Leine stated. "Unless you want to stay here."

"No, we'll go." Maialin reassured. "We'll need time to get some supplies together, it's going to be a long journey."

"Obviously." Leine replied. "And I need some rest." She yawned. "Finding this information took a long time."

"You realise we're going to be spending more time awake out there? To avoid getting ambushed in the night, we'll have to take turns on watch and things?" Maialin pointed out. "You had better not fall asleep on me and get us killed."

"Yes, yes. I know. Plays, remember?" Leine smiled.

"Don't remind me." Maialin grumbled. "Fine. You go sleep. Got any food around?" She asked.

"Of course, in the other room. Roof is still cracked, but it works for storing food. Help yourself." Leine yawned again, putting her head down on the table.

"Urm, don't you want to go to bed?" Maialin suggested. Silence was the only reply. "Oh." She said to herself. She looked at the map, Leine sleeping on it. "I'm coming for you, sis." She whispered.


	3. The Quest Begins

**Author's Notes: Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad you enjoy the storyline Aru Feuer, when I came up with it I was afraid it would be a little too simple to make an interesting story. A simple search for a sister. And as for updating soon, I generally update once a day (I have a lot of free time at the moment), but wanted to take this story a little slower, so it may be more like one every two days, I'm not sure yet really.**

**This chapter I've been trying hard to keep the relationship between Leine and Maialin interesting, with it still being strained between them, but I'm not sure whether it's getting too repetitive or not, so if anybody can give me any help there I'd appreciate it. It's the first story I've written with just two characters (at least at the start, this story will just have two), and actually the first one I've written with just two female characters, so no developing romantic relationships I can do either (although seeing my attempts at romance, that's a good thing!). Means I'm finding it a little difficult, so any criticism/points on how it's coming along would be greatly appreciated.**

**Oh, and you may recall I said this was based on real people. Well, I realised some people thought I might be being really horrible to the poor person who plays Leine, making her behave in this way. So I thought I'd just point out that that's me. Well, my character. So my treatment of Leine is only insulting to myself! Also speaking of real people, Arziel and Maialin are _not _sisters, but the same person, two characters under one account. I doubt anybody cares, but it's worth pointing out! I'm also aware, if anybody who reads this (I know TheFrogKiller has) who read my old stories these characters are developing similarities to them. I tried really hard to keep them unique and different, but I feel they are pretty close. Leine especially is a literal combination of two characters I wrote before. But hopefully that doesn't distract anybody.**

**Anyway, I'll shut up now. Enjoy. Or don't, if you don't like it, I suppose. Either way, tell me in a review afterwards! I'll really appreciate it if you do!**

**THE QUEST BEGINS**

Leine frowned in frustration as she tried to fit the saucepan into the already swollen pack. She paused, pushing on it and trying to jam it down the side.

"We really don't need all that stuff." Maialin commented casually.

"Yes we do. We need a tent to sleep in. And ground mats, I'm not sleeping on the hard floor!" Leine protested. Maialin rolled her eyes. "Sleeping bags, cooking utensils. Not to mention food."

"That food won't last us the journey." Maialin told her. "And the tent will just attract Charr attention, we're better off sleeping rough."

"I am not sleeping with nothing." Leine said firmly. Maialin rolled her eyes again.

"A pack that heavy? Who's going to carry it everywhere? You?" Maialin asked.

"Yes, me. If that's the price to be able to-" She stopped short when she tried to lift the back and failed. She paused, and put all of her weight against it, trying to drag it but only managing to slip on the floorboards of the house, unable to budge it. She paused and tried to lift it with a mighty heave. She couldn't. "Urm- I'm sure once we've used some of it up, we'll be easily able to carry it around. It'll only be heavy for the first part of the trip." She tried to argue. Maialin sighed heavily.

"Fine. I'll carry it." Maialin grumbled. "You could have just asked." Leine blushed. "We'll lose most of this stuff quickly, don't expect it to stick around. One ambush and the whole camp site is gone. Then we're down to our bare wits and skill for survival." Maialin paused. "In other words, you're doomed." Leine was almost glad to see that some of Maialin's old sense of humour had survived.

"Well, I guess this is it. We need to go." Leine sighed. Maialin laughed.

"Not yet." She said as though it was obvious. "You need to get changed."

"I what?" Leine was still in her traditional mesmer gear, a large fancy green jacket with golden lining, a white shirt, tight green trousers and her green high heeled boots. "This is the usual mesmer stuff."

"You won't make it two feet. Where's the armour? And what's with the boots?" Maialin was almost laughing at Leine.

"My boots are fine!" Leine protested. "And we don't all need armour, you know."

"Fine. But don't come complaining to me five minutes after we've left your feet are hurting." She sighed. "You mesmer are worse than the elementalists when it comes to practicality." Leine folded her arms, agitated. "Well, grab your satchel, and let's get moving then. Time to say goodbye to your home. You might never make it back." Leine visibly shuddered at the thought, causing Maialin to smile slightly.

The two women soon arrived at the gate, Maialin hauling the bag on her back (which was indeed heavy, she was already sweating under its weight), and her staff strapped there also. Leine had already put her mask on, her collar propped up to protect her pale neck from the sun as she always had it, her staff too resting on her back. Both the women now carried satchels, Maialin's a battered brown leather one slung over one shoulder, and Leine's a small green leather handbag. At least, it looks like a handbag to Maialin. She had a bad feeling Leine wouldn't survive for longer than a few minutes outside of the city walls. Leine paused as Maialin walked out.  
"What is it?" She said, her voice slightly strained by the weight pulling down on her back.

"Just-" Leine stumbled over her own words. "Just a little nervous, that's all." She explained.

"Leine. This was your idea. If you're too scared to go-"

"No. I'll do it." She squeaked. She took the step onto the burnt ground, her boot clicking as it touched down just like it had on the day of the Searing two years ago. This time there was no soft ground, and she was painfully aware of the noise of each of her footsteps. Maialin seemed to scowl at her, suggesting she was as well, but then again she seemed permanently annoyed at Leine, so it could be anything. Leine hated the attitude she got from Maialin, she was simply trying to help her, risking her life to help her, and all she got was looked down upon for her lack of experience. It was deeply annoying.

Leine snapped out of this strain of thought to scream in shock as the ground erupted before the two. Two huge insect like monsters with deadly pincers and tails, broke out from beneath the dirt.

"Devourers!" Maialin cried. "Get back!" Leine stumbled back, falling over in terror. Maialin sighed and cast a spell, leeching the life away from the closest monster. This simply attracted it to her, so Maialin began to fall back. When fighting in the army, she'd always have somebody to get up close to the monsters and distract them while she cast spells. It wasn't the case here. She knew she had to put as much distance between herself and the approaching beast as possible.

Leine scrambled to her feet, and ran, screaming all the way. She ran up a nearby slope, or at least attempted to, but slipped. The devourer was on top of her in seconds, lifting up its tail for a lethal sting.  
"MAIA! HELP!" Leine sobbed, but Maialin was distracted elsewhere. Leine clenched her eyes as the tail came down and awaited the cold embrace of death.

Maialin heard Leine's scream, but had problems of her own. She couldn't put enough distance between herself and the devourer, and it unleashed a huge ball of poisonous green energy at her. It hit into Maialin ,knocking her over. The creature scuttled towards her, but she started firing similar bolts from her staff, before slowly leeching the life away from it to restore herself. The creature seemed to falter for a moment, giving Maialin enough time to get to her feet. She quickly began to cast as the creature scuttled closer, preparing a more powerful spell.

Leine was hesitant to open her eyes. She wasn't dead, but she certainly hesitant to find out why. She just lay on the floor, shaking. A sudden force slammed down on her and she screamed, opening her eyes. It was the devourer, dead. A man dressed in the armour of the Ascalon Guard stood over it, his sword covered in its blood. He didn't stop to say anything before running to Maialin's aid, leaving Leine hopelessly trapped under the corpse.

"Ewww! Hey! Help!" She cried as she squirmed, but she was ignored.

Maialin unleashed her spell upon the devourer, and it faltered, feeling its life being sucked away. It stumbled, scuttling from side to side, and collapsed. The Ascalon Guard sheathed his sword and nodded.  
"Thanks." Maialin panted. "Sorry about my friend, she's a bit inexperienced."

"GET THIS THING OFF OF ME!" Leine screamed in a panic. Maialin managed a cute smile to the guard.

"No problem ma'am. But you may want to be more careful, things get much more dangerous beyond the city." He warned.

"Yes, believe me, I know." Maialin grumbled.

"Ewwwww! I think there's some bug blood in my hair!" Leine squirmed desperately, trying to move. Maialin sighed heavily, walking over and throwing the bug corpse off of her. Leine scrambled to her feet quickly, shaking. "I'm going home!" She snapped, turning to run away. Maialin grabbed her by the wrist as she did so and held her back.

"You're not going anywhere." She said firmly. "You can't run home at the sign of the first challenge."

"It nearly killed me!" Leine sobbed.

"That's what life is like out here." Maialin growled. "Now, you wanted to come, you wanted to prove yourself, didn't you?" Leine sighed. Maialin was still good at reading people. "Stop being a coward and do it then!" There was a pause. "And no, there's no bug blood in your hair." She added with a smirk, and Leine breathed a heavy sigh of relief, still shaking slightly.

"I'm sorry Maia." She said gently. "I don't think I can do this." She was still shaking. "I want to go home. You can hire help, like you said."

"You changed your mind quickly. Isn't that exactly what you told me _not _to do?" Maialin said, anger in her voice. "Leine, don't waste my time. My sister's life is at stake here, who knows where she might be or what she's going through. I don't need you around to slow me down. If you're going to be a problem, walk back in the city right now and I'll go on alone."

"You'll never make it alone." Leine stated. "Take some help."

"You're my help, Leine. You forced yourself on me, and now you want to run. I'm not turning back. But you can." Maialin turned and began to walk away. Leine stood there for a moment, the realisation that if she went with Maialin, she couldn't go back, setting in. She may never see the city, or her home, or the friends she had made ever again. That she might die around the next corner. Then she focused on Maialin, who was marching away purposefully, yet somehow not getting far, as if she wanted to linger. She had been really mean to Leine since she had returned, talking down to her all the time, implying she was petty, claiming she knew nothing of what the soldiers had been through and everything else she had done, yet Leine still tried to help out. Maybe she felt guilty, she wasn't really sure. But right now Maialin was smugly marching away, like she had won.

_I'll prove her wrong!_

"Hey! Wait up!" Leine called, chasing after her. Maialin half smiled hearing her voice. "Like you could survive without a backup." She said playfully.

"I'd much rather have a melee fighter." Maialin told her plainly. "But I'm glad you're here." She added much more warmly. "Even if its just for the company."

"Well, I would use a sword, but they're heavy, you know?" Leine laughed innocently. "Besides, my nails are at greater risk of breaking with a sword." She added with a sarcastic smile. Luckily Maialin realised it was a joke and laughed.  
"We've got a lot of ground to cover." She began, becoming much more serious. "We need to head West, along the wall. That'll at least give us some support from the guards should we run into anything. Hopefully we can make the end of the wall by nightfall, set up camp there, before continuing the journey tomorrow."

"I'll just follow." Leine smiled, realising she didn't really have a clue about the area at all. Maialin smirked.

"Come on then." She gestured. The two began to walk.

Leine was soon gasping for breath, wiping sweat from her brow and becoming very concerned about how she must smell. She finally stopped, and dropped down on a big rock.

"Can we rest, please?" She panted. "It's been hours. My feet are-" She suddenly remembered what Maialin had said before they had left. "I'm exhausted."

"Leine. It's been about ten minutes." Maialin said flatly.

"It has not!" Leine cried in defence. Maialin paused, letting the heavy rucksack drop off of her shoulders and taking a deep sigh of relief at the released weight.

"I could use a rest, I guess." She muttered, sitting down and rolling her shoulders, trying to get out the dull ache.

"You alright?" Leine asked, looking through her handbag.

"That bag is heavy, that's all." Maialin answered.

"I know. Sorry." Leine blushed.

"I'm sure we'll appreciate it later." Maialin smiled. Leine pulled perfume out of her bag and sprayed it on her neck, trying to counter the sweaty smell. Maialin rolled her eyes, digging through her satchel and pulling out a water canteen, taking a mouthful. She had mastered long ago just how to drink the right amount to keep you going without wasting any precious water. She doubted even Arziel could find a drop to drink in a place like Ascalon, not anymore. Leine looked up at the scorching sun from under her mask, which was stuck to her face by sweat. She peeled it off and rubbed her face with a cloth, wiping it clean.

"It's so hot." Leine panted. "I had no idea it would be so bad travelling."

"I know. The metal of my armour gets hot very fast under this direct sunlight." Maialin touched her own armour as if to demonstrate. Leine removed her green gloves revealing her well manicured and neatly painted fingernails. She placed the gloves in her bag, the heat being too much to keep wearing them. Maialin, for the first time, paid attention to how Leine was dressed. Her hair was perfectly arranged, her face neatly made-up, her fingernails, as mentioned, painted. She wondered how anybody found time to look like that in the disastrous world of Ascalon, but she realised it was Leine just trying to cling to her old life, how she was raised. There was something comforting in that, a little reminder of the Ascalon that was, even if Maialin despised the way most of the citizens, including Leine, behaved. She also liked just how superior it made her feel, how utterly unprepared Leine was for the harsh life they were going to have to face during their journey. It made her feel good about herself, in the army she had been the inexperienced young one that everybody talked down to, now she was the expert, and it was a nice feeling. It made her feel good, like she knew what she was doing. She felt in charge and she felt clever, and that was useful, it made her act more decisively.

Leine meanwhile, hated her position. She felt weak and insignificant. They had had one battle, and she had barely pulled through. She didn't mind letting somebody else show her around and be in charge, it made matters easier on her, but she hated that feeling of being out of place and completely baffled by events. And the fact that she struggling to handle the simple travelling worried her. She knew it hadn't been that long since they had left, but she had been so exhausted she knew she couldn't handle another five minutes under the heat.

The time soon came for them to press on, and they left. Leine tried to take her turn to carry the bag, but as it was proven back in her home, it was simply too heavy for her. Maialin had continued to take it, seeming not to mind, to Leine's surprise. Maialin must have liked being clearly the strongest.

Night fell as they had expected, but they made it nowhere near as far as they had hoped. Leine hadn't been able to keep the pace Maialin had hoped, and she insisted on stopping frequently, unable to keep travelling. Luckily this meant they could set up camp underneath the wall, and then head out early in the morning. There would be no need for either of them to take watch with the Ascalon Guard around.

"I get that this pole goes here, but what is this one meant to do?" Leine asked, trying to assemble the tent. Maialin giggled, setting up a fire. She knew it would become cold very quickly once the sun had set. "What does this bit do?" Leine held up a little metal cylinder. "What possible purpose could an item such as this have in a tent?"

"It holds the poles together." Maialin said casually. Leine looked at it.

"Oh?" She seemed puzzled, before sliding it on. "Oh!"

"Leine, we're not making the process we need." Maialin told her.

"Okay, okay, it is my first time setting up a tent, you know." Leine replied.

"No, I mean for the journey." Maialin explained. "Tomorrow, I think we should leave the wall and head south."

"South? Why?" Leine asked.

"I know a short cut. It'll cut a day off our journey, but we'll be away from the cover of the wall." Maialin said in explanation. "And it-" She paused, reconsidering bringing up her next point. "We'll be away from safety, but it'll be much quicker." She said instead.

"Okay. Let's do it." Leine said cheerfully. "I'm ready for danger! I'm not going to chicken out again like I did today. I reckon I can face it." She suddenly remembered the claws of the devourer and the weight as it crushed her. "Urm, from a safe distance, of course." She added with a blush. She fiddled for a bit and let out an annoyed grunt. "I give up! This is impossible!" She snapped at the tent. Maialin got up and walked over to her. Leine looked at Maialin, smiling as innocently as possible.

"Fine. I'll set up the tent _too_." Maialin grumbled. "But just this once." Leine smiled, and went to sit by the fire, the cold now making her long for the warmth of the day. Maialin got to work with the tent, having set up enough in her life to know the method like the back of her hand.

The two women had a long journey awaiting them.


	4. A Sticky Shortcut

**Author's Note: Yep, there's more. If you're new to my writing, I warn you, I make unreasonably long author's notes. There's not very often important things in them, just review replies and me talking about myself in a ridiculously bigheaded way, so feel free to skip them. It's unusual they say anything important, except possibly pointing out when I may be forced to miss updates.**

**Phabrizoe; great to see you reading this! I always appreciate your reviews! Yes, no romance, although I do think I've been improving (don't get me wrong, I'm still really really _really _bad at it, but I think I've gotten better during Twilight of the Immortal than I was in the FFXI Chronicles 3). I might put a very small bit in, or an implied relationship, between Vahlahn (who finally shows up this chapter) and Arziel. Or I might leave it out all together. And yes, you should get Guild Wars, because it's simply brillaint, _and _free to play online once you have the game!**

**This next bit is actually in reference to Phabrizoe's last review of Twilight of the Immortal, so everybody else should probably skip it. Just wanted to comment on calling the final duel chapter 'The Climatic Battle', because I know it seems like a bad title, but I actually was intending to call it that for a very long time. You see, it was meant to be at a point past any need for flowery images, or metaphors or anything, at a point where the bad guy had done something so bad everything was just simple, it was the final battle: one of them was going to die. So I tried to keep it simple. That was my intention. Looking back on it, it didn't really work and just looked like me being unusually bad at naming. (Actually, my proudest achievement this story is the title, I really like it, 'The Ashes of Ascalon' just sounds good, I think, sorry, being a bit arrogant there).**

**Ahem. In reference to this chapter, it feels a little off. It turned out a bit crap, to be honest, I felt really tired writing it, like I was struggling to get the words out. I think it's a bit sloppier than normal, and Lord knows my usual writing is pretty damn sloppy. Which is a shame, this is a chapter I had the idea for before I started writing. In Guild Wars one thing I really liked was the rare instances when terrain would affect your fighting abilities, for example, the tar in Ascalon slowing you down. So I vowed to write a scene in the tar pits. Except never having actually waded through tar (you know, it's just not one of those things I do!) I'm not quite sure what it would actually be like, so it might seem a little weird.**

**And Zin, great to see you reading! For how these people will survive, I'm not too sure, but I wanted something where every battle and every creature was a threat. After a 220 odd page story with an immortal hero, it was nice to go back to everything being dangerous and threatening. Hopefully every battle should be really interesting this way. And I make no guarantees they all make it.**

**Anyway, I'll shut up now. Sorry if this chapter seems a little sub par, I should have done better, but just messed up. Sorry! Hope you enjoy anyway! (Oh, and you get to see my _atrocious _chapter titles in true action).**

**EDIT: In response to reviews, I've edited this chapter to remove fire/tar incidents and the obvious resulting explosion that didn't even occur to me. Thanks Vahlahn and Zin! Vahlahn (who is in fact Bootus) there also revealed Maialin's secret (and Arziel's), which is they are in fact both Zinkata! Urm, only FFXI Chronicles readers will understand who these people are. And I am _not _like Leine dammit!**

**  
As for description of monsters, I'm really bad at that, but I've tried to put a bit more in. The grawl were slightly described in their first appearance, and the devourer's had some description behind them as well. I've tried to add a bit more to this chapter, however. The grammatical errors I haven't spotted, but if you find some (anyone) please feel free to point them out and I'll go back and correct them. Thanks!**

**A STICKY SHORTCUT**

"No." Leine said firmly.

"Come on, this cuts a day off our journey." Maialin argued.

"I don't care. No." Leine replied. The information Maialin had decided to neglect about their shortcut had revealed itself upon their arrival, and Leine was strictly unimpressed.

"It's just a bit of tar." Maialin shrugged.

"A bit? It's a river!" Leine protested. Indeed, there was a chasm cutting straight across the raised ground around it, but it was filled with black and bubbling tar, all that was left of Ascalon's once scenic streams.

"It's not deep, if you stick to the edges you'll be fine." Maialin pointed out.

"So if we don't sink to our doom in these lethal tar pits, we still need to wade through it." Leine countered. "And I was under the impression tar was somewhat difficult to move in!"

"You stick to the edges and you'll be fine, like I said." Maialin shrugged.

"I'm just worried I'll _literally _stick to the edges." Leine pointed out, smirking at her own pun. Maialin apparently didn't find it funny. "Besides, do you have any idea how hard it is to get tar stains out of clothes? My boots will never be the same!" Maialin rolled her eyes as she always did when Leine made a comment along those lines, and began to walk through the tar, it reaching up and following each of her footsteps as it stuck to her. Leine paused.

"Come on! It's only a day to go around." She called. Maialin ignored her, knowing it was by far the most effective tactic to handling her. Leine paused, grumbled to herself, and then decided to try and follow, instead scrambling along the sloped edges around the river than in it. She managed a few step, slide and landed in the tar. "Ewwww!" She exclaimed, causing Maialin to roll her eyes once more. Leine tried to hurry after Maialin, only managing a very slow pace as she struggled through the sticky black liquid.

Maialin struggled along ahead of Leine, remembering why she hated the tar pits scattered around the ruins of Ascalon. They slowed down anybody passing through them, keeping a fast pace was impossible in the sludge, and more than a few soldiers had been lost during ambushes and who had strayed too deep, being sucked into the bottom of the pits for all eternity. Somebody always looked out for her, she was her patrol's youngest member after all, but enough people had died to them. She was just hoping Leine was close to the edges as she had ordered.

Maialin was snapped from her thoughts as she heard something. Stone crumbling? She quickly looked up to see a grawl perched on the edge of the rocks above the pit. Its monkey like face let out a screech. Its huge brown arm went tense as it pulled back on the bow. Her eyes went wide.

"LEINE! LOOK OUT!" She screamed. The arrow flew down at Maialin, and she just managed to move aside, struggling to move fast enough. Two more grawl, armed with blades, ran down the sloped edges, half sliding, half falling, and splashed into the tar, splattering it everywhere. Maialin shut her eyes as it splattered over her armour. She opened them again to see a grawl charging her, it apparently undeterred by the fact its furry shoulders were now blackened. She drew her staff just in time, blocking the incoming sword swipe. She was knocked off balance however, and stumbled back, and knew it was futile to run in the tar. The archer above was taking aim, and she'd lost track of the second grawl.

Leine was quite far behind Maialin, having a harder time of making it through the tar than her. She suddenly heard the clash of weapons, and tried to pick up the pace, struggling furiously. She couldn't move much faster, and was already exhausted from the effort. She stopped as she saw a grawl charging towards her. She quickly turned around and began to move in the opposite direction, but knew she couldn't move fast enough.

"Urm." She quickly began to chant to herself. "Imagined Burden!" She cried, not exactly sure why she found it necessary to announce her own spell. The grawl suddenly staggered in shock as it slowed down, suddenly feeling much heavier. Leine took this opportunity to run away, although it was less of a 'run' and more of a stumble. The grawl behind her could just about match her pace, but she could keep away from it thanks to her spell. She quickly looked at the grawl, its brown hide clearly on display, and she wished she had a sword. It had no armour after all, it would have been easy to finish it off.

Maialin ducked as the grawl swung its blade and brought her staff up in a block. She hit upwards, hitting the grawl. It didn't seem to have much effect. The grawl archer hadn't taken a shot, but she was too distracted to consider why. The grawl swung its blade down overhead, and Maialin blocked it with her staff, but the strength of the blow was much more than she had been expecting, knocking her off her feet and causing her to splash down in the sticky tar. She squirmed helplessly, unable to get back up. The grawl lifted its weapon, but became distracted by a noise from atop the hill.

The grawl archer crashed down the slope and into the tar, dead. A figure above it ran and jumped onto the slope, skiing down it, stumbling as he went but managing to keep his balance. He approached the tar quickly, and to Maialin's shock the tar before him turned to ice. He skidded to a stop on it and quickly cast a spell. Lightning leapt from his hands and tore through the grawl, killing it instantly. He grinned and wondered over to her, offering a hand. She took it, sprawled on her back still, the tar luckily not being deep enough to have sucked her under, but being too much for her to get back up. He pulled her to her feet, before slipping out of the glove on his hand, which was now stuck to Maialin.

"Thanks." She smiled.

"No problem." Came the reply.

"HELP! MAIA!" Came a voice.

"Leine?" Maialin exclaimed.

"Maia?" Her savoir spoke slowly.

"We have to help her!" Maialin cried, and began struggling in Leine's direction.

Leine's spell on the grawl had worn off, and it had gained on her. She had stumbled away from the safety of the edge, trying to get away, but as the tar had got deeper, it had grown harder to move in. She tugged furiously at her feet, but she couldn't pull them out. She was stuck. (Had she not been so panicked, she'd of realised this was lucky, as had she gone much deeper she would have been dead). The grawl approached her, apparently smiling through its monstrous features. She squirmed, screaming in desperation.

"HELP!" She called again. "PLEASE! HELP!" The grawl lifted up its sword, ready to strike. It dropped it shock before it could do so, and stumbled backwards. Maialin held out her staff, having just cast another life draining spell. The stranger beside her summoned a gust of wind, knocking the horrific monster deep into the sludge where it sunk, never to bother anyone again. Maialin smiled, her tar splattered face looking surprisingly messy. The hair that usually hung over one eye was now stuck to her cheek. The stranger walked over and pulled Leine out, carrying her back to the shallower area. "Still think this way is worth the day we save?" She panted. Maialin smiled.

"Okay, so I made a mistake." She admitted.

"You invented mistakes, Maia." Leine sighed, almost going to try and scrub her boots clean, but then remembering it would just stick to her hands.

"Maia?" The stranger asked. "As in Maialin?"

"Yeah." Maialin replied. "Thanks for your help back there, by the way." She paused. "You know me?"

"You don't recognise me?" The elementalist pushed his blue hair back behind his ears revealing his face, older, more worn, but unmistakable.  
"Vahlahn?" Maialin exclaimed with an overjoyed smile.

"Vahlahn?" Leine whispered. Maialin threw herself around Vahlahn with a smile, promptly getting stuck to him. The two tried to pry apart but failed. Vahlahn sighed and simply slipped out of his coat, leaving it hanging off of Maialin, but he was free at least.

"Yes, it's me." Vahlahn smiled. "Lucky I found you two ladies when I did, you were almost grawl food."

"This search might be easier than you thought, Maia." Leine said happily.

"Where's Arziel?" Maialin asked quickly. Vahlahn fell silent.

"Ah." He stated. "I- I haven't seen her." He explained. "Not for over a year." He said sadly.

"What happened?" Maialin questioned.

"We met up with Prince Rurik and his squad, who suggested pushing to Shiverpeak." Vahlahn explained.

"Exactly as I figured!" Leine beamed.

"We agreed to retreat and leave Ascalon behind, but the Charr ambushed us." Vahlahn sighed. "We got separated. I tried to hold them off with magic, eventually persuading her to run. I retreated but got wounded, badly." He paused again. "I never saw her again. I hid in a cave for months, just hunting for food for survival. I knew I couldn't reach the mountains alone, but I don't think that stopped Arziel, I think she's pushing onwards. Or at least she did. I was too wounded to follow for a long time anyway, all hopes of catching her soon faded. I stayed out there, fighting, helping out passing patrols, but eventually I gave up. All hope of Arziel ever returning faded, so I decided to head back to Ascalon City, and ran into you two."

"Thank the gods." Sighed Leine. "We were in real trouble there."

"You two aren't going to make it, you know." Vahlahn commented. "You'll get far worse encounters than that."

"Hey! It was the tar!" Maialin protested.

"Speaking of the tar, can we _please _get out of it now?" Leine asked, squirming.

"Okay. We'll head to the end of the pit, then we can talk properly." He looked at Maialin. "And get cleaned up." He sighed.

Some time later the group had a fire going, cooking some of the food Leine brought. Leine was sat on one of the mats she had brought for her sleeping bag to lie on, barefoot, having removed her tar covered boots. Maialin was practically naked, simply wearing a light top and pants, her armour in a pile.

"So, where are you two headed?" Vahlahn asked casually.

"Shiverpeak. We're going after Arziel." Maialin explained, apparently unashamed by her lack of clothing, scrubbing at her armour with a cloth. Leine was similarly trying to clean her boots. Neither were getting on too well, the cloths there were using simply sticking to the tar. Vahlahn's clothes were ripped, torn and beaten from the years he had spent in them, so he cared very little what happened to them and was content to sit around. Maialin claimed the tar would stick up the joints in her armour, and Leine just moaned for whatever reasons she could find. Vahlahn had managed to make a stew, which, while not looking too appetising, did at least smell good.

"Shiverpeak?" Vahlahn sighed. "It's not an easy journey. You two aren't going to make it."

"So you said." Leine grumbled, trying to peel the cloth from one of her boots, having stuck to it sufficiently.

"I can go with you. Perhaps the three of us will stand a chance." He suggested.

"I thought you were finally heading home. You can't want to just continue on with us." Leine pointed out in between grunts as she wrestled with her own boot.

"Home? You call this home?" Vahlahn laughed. "Besides, we have to push past the wall into Charr territory, remember?"

"But we just left the wall." Leine said in confusion.

"You did?" Vahlahn asked.

"I figured we'd just go around Charr territory, so we, you know, live." Maialin explained.

"You can't go around it." Vahlahn sighed. "The cliffs are impassable and they're everywhere anyway. You're much better just going past the wall and braving it."

"Wait." Leine suddenly said, rage seemingly brewing in her. "Does this mean what I think it means?"

"Why? What do you think it means?" Vahlahn asked.

"That we went through that tar _for no good reason!_" She screamed. Vahlahn smirked a bit.

"'fraid so." He said simply. Leine threw her boots down and folded her arms in frustration.

"Look. Eat something. You'll feel better." He said gently.  
"Maia! I am not impressed!" Leine snapped.

"Hey, I didn't hear you doing any better with navigating." Maialin casually countered.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't realise you wanted me to be a map reader!" Leine seemed furious.  
"It's just a pair of boots, Leine." Maialin told her. Leine looked at them, and then at the devastation around, and sighed.

"I guess so." She sighed. "But we could have got in real trouble! You came as close to dieing as I did!" Maialin blushed slightly.

"I'm not used to not having a melee fighter with us." She admitted. "But I'm sure we'll adapt. Now, it's quickest if we back track the way we came-"

"NO!" Leine yelled.

"Urm, I mean, it's probably quickest if we carry on and loop back to the wall." Maialin corrected herself. She wasn't entirely sure why she did it, but was feeling slightly sorry for Leine. Adventuring really wasn't her thing, and she was still making the effort. Leine had taken her stew, and clearly was reconsidering eating it upon seeing it, it looking more like a mud pie than something actually edible.

"That's fine by me." Vahlahn told them. "I hear that the Duke and his troops have pushed into that area to reclaim the plaza. We can stop there for supplies, and safe night's rest." He paused. "If we make it that far." Leine gulped.

"We'll make it." Maialin said confidently. "We're going to find Arziel again, and with your help, it's a certain."

"I don't know." Vahlahn sighed. "I can handle a few grawl, but the Charr are much more deadly." He warned. "But, if we have to try, we try. If we die, then we die. Simple." Leine decided to distract herself from the thoughts of death by sticking the foul looking stew in her mouth. The instant it settled in her stomach she realised just how hungry she was, and how good the stew tasted. She dug in quickly, eating it faster than anybody thought it would be possible. "It's been a while since I've been able to cook with real ingredients." He smiled. "Mostly it's just dead grawl." Leine's face fell at hearing that.

"Can you not mention that while we're eating, please?" She asked.

"You sure look hungry." Vahlahn observed. "You want to keep eating. Keep your strength up."

"I don't think Leine has any strength _to_ keep up." Maialin joked.

"I heard that." Leine said in a muffled voice through a mouthful of food.

"We need to head to get moving." Vahlahn decided. "But to be honest, I suggest we camp here tonight."

"Doesn't that mean we _don't _get moving?" Maialin observed.

"Well, you two seem pretty tired after your battle with the grawl." He explained. Leine was nodding as she ate. "Plus this area is at least safe for the moment, we took out the nearby grawl and I doubt anymore would be around, or else they'd have come to help the battle."

"Fine." Maialin muttered. "I could use some amusement anyway."

"Amusement?" Vahlahn questioned.

"Yeah, watch." She said simply. "Leine. Set up the tent."

Maialin began inexplicably chuckling to herself before Leine had even begun.


	5. Back To The Wall

**Author's Note: Never have I found a chapter so difficult to write. Why? I'm writing a story about survivors in a ruined city searching for their loved ones, essentially, and right now there are tens of thousands of survivors in a ruined city for real, thousands dead, all starving without food or water. I'm referring to the flooding of New Orleans. I can say 'my thoughts go out to all those involved', but it really doesn't sum it up, does it? What can I say? I can't even comprehend the suffering those people must be going through. I want to hope everybody's okay, but with possible thousands dead already, that's hardly likely is it? I just hope everybody who survived can get out before it gets too bad. I feel really guilty writing a story like this for my own enjoyment at a time like this, but I did it anyway. I guess it just proves I'm very selfish.**

**To make matters worse, a thousand people have died in a stampede in Iraq. It's a very sad time for everybody all over the globe. Never have I felt luckier to be safe and unharmed than I do today. And I'm English, I don't live in either of the countries affected, or know anybody who was, but I still can't help but feel really bad, and just hope for the very best to happen now. I hope the people who have lost loved ones can find peace, and I hope everybody can escape New Orleans before anymore lives are lost.**

**Sorry for the depressive author's note, but I really felt I should say something. Here's the chapter, at least.**

**BACK TO THE WALL**

Maialin grumbled to herself, the huge pack still on her back. She was confident that Vahlahn was going to volunteer to carry it, but apparently he had decided not to. It was blackened by tar, it had been on her back after all when she fell in, but luckily the contents had been unharmed. Leine was also grumbling, but only because it was in her nature to complain at just about every given moment, or so it seemed to Maialin at least. Vahlahn was leading the party, and Maialin was surprisingly relieved, while she liked being in charge and the feeling of experience she had, it was nice to have the responsibility lifted. Besides, if she was honest, she wasn't entirely confident in her abilities to lead, whereas she believed in Vahlahn. He had travelled with Arziel enough, and seemed to know what he was doing.

The Northern Wall fell into view and Leine let out a sigh.

"Finally!" She cried, only to be met by stares from the others. "What?" She asked. Vahlahn just sighed and continued walking. Maialin turned away, but Leine had a funny feeling she was rolling her eyes. Leine hurried after them, her feet pounding with pain and her body feeling exhausted. The heat seemed less than the previous days, but it was still tough to bare.

"I suggest we stop for a rest at the-" Vahlahn begun.

"Yes!" Leine cheered, cutting him off. She was met by more stares. "Sorry." She muttered, looking to the floor. Vahlahn shook his head in confusion.  
"-at the wall." He continued. "We can eat food under the cover of the guards, and once we pass through the wall we'll be against Charr, and need all the energy we can get." Leine gulped and Maialin nodded. Vahlahn continued towards the wall, and the two women followed.

It was mere moments before they were sat around on the rocks, the Ascalon Guards doing their best to ignore them. Leine had taken off her boots (still stained black from the tar) and was rubbing her own feet. Maialin smirked.

"Somebody's feet hurting?" She asked.

"Yes. I know. You told me so." Leine sighed, looking at the boots. "I'm still better off than Vahlahn!" Vahlahn looked over his own clothing, grey and brown from dirst, full of holes from different injuries, scorched in places from close contact with lightning and fire spells, and now he was minus his jacket, part of which was still stuck to Maialin's armour and part which had been thrown away after she ripped it trying to get it off.

"It's okay. I've collected quite a few trinkets over the years." Vahlahn smiled. "You'd be surprised what you can find in a wasteland like this." Vahlahn dug through the beaten satchel he had been carrying (it was such a common sight the two women hadn't noticed it until that point). "This, for example." He pulled out a diamond necklace, a golden chain hanging from the immaculate jewel. Leine's blue eyes suddenly seemed to sparkle. "I guess some poor woman was trapped outside during the Searing." He sighed. "Must be worth…" He trailed off, slightly disturbed by how Leine's eyes followed the jewel wherever it went. "…quite…a….lot." He said slowly, distracted by Leine. He closed his hand around it and Leine let out a disappointed murmur, before he slipped it back in his satchel. "And that's nothing. Old weapons, pieces of armour. Stuff I've found make that seem worthless."

"If it's worthless, can I-" Leine began with a smile.  
"No, you can't have it." He said simply. Her face fell. "It's not _that _worthless."

"Can we at least eat?" Leine asked miserably.

"Now that isn't a bad idea." Maialin input. Vahlahn pulled the pack over to him and began to dig through it.

"Fine. Do I have to cook again?" Vahlahn asked with a sigh.

"I'll do it!" Leine volunteered, although Vahlahn was certain she was just trying to get on his good side so that she could have the diamond necklace.

"Leine, can you even cook?" Maialin asked sceptically.

"Are you kidding? I'm as good at cooking as I am at acting!" She replied. Maialin's face dropped in horror. Leine grinned slightly, knowing that that was the perfect way to get out of it. This way she'd volunteered, but didn't have to do any of the work.  
"Please! Vahlahn! Keep her away from the food!" Maialin begged. Vahlahn sighed.

"I miss being in solitude." He muttered. Leine looked up as she noticed an Ascalon guard approaching them.

"We are allowed to be here, right?" Leine asked Maialin with a gulp.

"Of course." Maialin sighed.

"You three." The guard spoke. "You heading past the wall?"

"That's the plan." Maialin said confidently.

"Why?" Vahlahn sounded suspicious. "A problem on the other side?"

"More like a lack of it." The guard explained. "We haven't heard anything from the Charr. Not for a good week now. Unlike them to be playing things peacefully."

"You think they're planning something?" Vahlahn assumed.

"Don't be silly." Leine laughed. "They're beasts. What could they plan?"

"They destroyed this city, didn't they?" The guard shot. Leine's smile faded and she fell silent, feeling rather guilty. She looked to the floor as her cheeks burnt red. "I don't know. But consider it a warning. Where you headed?"

"To Shiverpeak, in the long run." Vahlahn answered.

"You'll be stopping by the Duke, I assume?" The guard guessed. "Please, if you find out what they're up to, tell him. This city can't stand another Charr attack."

"Now, I'm sure the Ascalon Guard could easily handle that little issue." Vahlahn said with a slight smile. "What aren't you telling us?" The guard paused, surprised by Vahlahn's intelligent guess.

"Our guard are scattered thin, and the risk of the Charr is too great." The guard explained. "None of us want to go and get butchered by those monsters." Leine turned a literal white upon hearing how feared the Charr were, even by the guards.

"I've seen the guard handle Charr before." Vahlahn commented. "It's nothing to be afraid of."

"Perhaps, but we're losing soldiers all the time. We can't risk anymore losses." He paused. "Just the other day a devourer got one sleeping on the job, before that, we disgraced some twisted necromancer who thought it was okay to resurrect her own comrades, you get the idea." Maialin's face suddenly turned an unusually bright shade of red and she looked away. "We're losing troops all the time, and if we're going to face another Charr attack, we need everybody we can."

"So you get us travellers to do your dirty work." It was a statement, not a question.. Vahlahn had already figured it out.

"Your headed that way anyway, aren't you?" The guard smiled under his crimson helmet. Vahlahn sighed heavily.

Leine didn't have a chance for a dramatic slow step through the gate as Maialin was behind her, and moving quickly. They stepped outside of the wall, the solid brown ground and devastated wasteland spread out before them. Apart from the lack of shards of the city, it looked the same as the rest of Ascalon. Leine seemed overly anxious to pick up the pace and keep moving, wanting to get to the safety as the captured area belong to the Duke as soon as possible. Of course, this just meant she soon tired out and was lagging behind.

It was almost an hour later that Vahlahn threw his hand up, motioning to them to stop.

"We're being hunted." He said simply.

"W-what?" Leine stammered.

"You sure?" Maialin asked curiously.

"Look, the rocks behind us, to the right." He said. Maialin and Leine turned, realising he meant a rock on the raised ground above them. They both looked curiously.

"I don't see anything!" Leine said far too loudly. The scowl Vahlahn gave her made sure she would be quiet.

"You sure?" Maialin whispered. Vahlahn didn't respond. For a moment, Maialin thought she saw something behind the rock, but it quickly hid itself. "Your right."

"W-w-what do we do?" Leine sounded as if she was going to cry.

"Keep moving. Be prepared." Vahlahn told her. "If it attacks, be ready to run or fight." Leine whimpered and Maialin nodded. The three continued onwards.

Leine wasn't the most observant, and she was now utterly petrified, her hands squeezed tightly together, her whole body shaking, and her eyes constantly fluttering around, watching everything. Despite her lack of observation skills, even she was now painfully aware of the odd scuffling noise from behind. Something _was _following them. She was so scared she felt sick. A stray tear escaped and ran down her face, and she quickly became glad that neither Maialin nor Vahlahn were paying her any attention.

The beast locked its eyes onto the female straggling behind the group. The woman dressed in green, her tiny figure shaking like a fragile leaf. She was the least threatening, and easily removed. The other female was dressed in metal, she would be problematic. The male seemed to carry himself with a confidence, a hidden power that even the beast could sense. Its eyes narrowed. Humans were predictable. If he assaulted the weak female, the others would come to her protection. They would come in close. Neither were warriors, the beast could tell. He would lure them close and then rip them to shreds.

"Maia." Leine whimpered, getting left behind again. Her fear was wearing her down and she was becoming tired. Vahlahn and Maialin were moving faster now too, and she was beginning to struggle to keep up. "Maia. Wait." She sounded now as if she was sobbing she was so scared. "Maia, I can't keep up with-" Leine's voice drowned out as a massive roar pierced the air. She shrieked in pure terror. A huge monster leapt out and grabbed her, pinning her against the ground.

Vahlahn turned slowly, his grey eyes locking onto the massive beast. Horns stuck out of the top of its head, gigantic teeth jutted out of its monstrous wolf-like jaw, its deadly yellow eyes beamed with rage, its hunched body covered in fur brimmed with muscle. Spikes stuck out of its back and it wore a belt and padding around its wrists and ankles forged from the skins of murdered victims. He recognised it instantly. He had seen enough of them.

It was a Charr.

Leine continued screaming so loudly Maialin felt the urge to cover her ears. The Charr snarled, lifting her up and pinning her against the wall. Maialin ran towards it, but a hand on her shoulder held her back with an amazing strength.

"No, Maia." Vahlahn stated.

"We need to get it off of her! It's killing her!" Maialin protested.

"It's trying to lure us close." He explained. "I'll sort this one out." Vahlahn took a confident step forwards. "Beast. Set her down. _Now_." The Charr just growled at Vahlahn. He seemed un-phased. "The winds are my ally, beast. The whirlwinds shall set her down if you do not." A great wind picked up, blowing Maialin's purple hair in front of her eyes. The Charr stood, tensing its muscles and trying to stand its ground. It was picked and blown away, crashing down while Leine was sent flying from its grip, crashing down some distance away. The Charr quickly scrambled to its feet, but lighting struck it, tearing through it and causing it to fall backwards. Maialin began sucking away the Charr's life energies as she always did, but it didn't seem to be affected it. The Charr sprung to its feet and charged Vahlahn.

Vahlahn didn't move. It continued to approach before skidding to a stop. It looked down at him. His grey lifeless eyes met the deadly yellow of the beast. It let out a curious whimper, and fled. Maialin suddenly looked at Vahlahn in shock. He kept his fixed stare until the Charr had gone, and then strode towards Leine.

"What was that about?" Maialin inquired in shock.

"Not now. Leine's hurt." Vahlahn snapped. Maialin ran after him, suddenly seeming very concerned.

"Is she alright?" She asked quickly. Leine may annoy her at times, but she was still her friend.

"It hurts!" Leine whined from the ground. She leant forwards to clutch her ankle, but her head started pounding as soon as she did and she collapsed again. She brought a hand to her head, and felt sticky blood.

"Are you alright?" Vahlahn asked in a business like matter.

"No! It hurts! My ankle! My head!" Leine sobbed. Vahlahn sighed.

"I know a few healing spells. Give me a moment." Maialin said quickly, bending down and placing a hand on Leine's head. A white light washed over her. "I trained with the monks for a bit." She explained. "Part of my military training, you can never have too many healers." Leine's head and ankle still hurt, but it became bearable.

"I'm sorry for causing that, Leine." Vahlahn told her. "It was necessary, but I'm still sorry. You're unlucky for landing on your head."

"You're telling me." Leine grumbled. "That blood has _totally _ruined my hair!" Maialin laughed.

"Least she's not too badly hurt." She smiled. "It's when she forgoes her fashion sense I'd be worried." Vahlahn broke a smile.

"Come on." He decided. "Leine? Can you stand?" Leine got up, and swayed a little, putting her weight against Maialin. She tried to put weight on her ankle, but winced.

"Not really." She decided. Vahlahn looked at Maialin, who had the pack still on her back. He sighed and lifted her arm around his shoulder. He was taller than her, so had to hunch slightly so that she could still walk easily.

"This might be easier if you carried me." She suggested with an innocent smile, her hair falling down across her face. Vahlahn smiled, pushing it back. When he withdrew her hand, she noticed the diamond necklace was now hanging around her neck. Her eyes lit up. "Forget I said anything!" She beamed. Vahlahn laughed.

Maialin suddenly paused as she remembered the events with the Charr, and how it had run as it saw Vahlahn. Vahlahn turned to her, and her eyes met his. She felt a chill run down her spine.

"C'mon, Maia!" He called. She nodded, and hurried after him.


	6. The Chase

**Author's Note: Here's the next chapter, which I'm getting weary of because the current story has a very repetitive structure (travel a bit, rest, travel a bit, rest, etc.) so sorry for it getting a bit crap there. Hopefully the plot is holding out, and with the added mystery of Vahlahn, I hope that should help it a bit. But I'm not a very good writer, so I'm not pulling it off very well. I hope everybody can still enjoy the story.**

**Nice to see another reader, who I'm gonna have to call 'Anon' for the moment I guess. Glad you like it! I'm actually tempted to be really mean with Vahlahn and have nobody find out who he really is, just drop hints, but I'll probably end up revealing it.**

**Vahlahn, glad your still reading, little surprised you hadn't heard about New Orleans, but that's been discussed on messenger already. I'm very glad the events overshadow my story though, I mean, thousands of deaths and tens of thousands stranded is a far more important thing to be considering right now than my own crappy little story.**

**Urm. That's me putting myself down, I got told off for that last time, so I'll stop. Lastly, this chapter takes its inspiration from one of the Guild Wars quests (at least part of it) but isn't actually meant to be the same quest. Also: I have no idea what the name of the Duke is or the area he resides in, which this chapter suffers from because I couldn't refer to the Duke or the area by name. Sorry about that!**

**Also, I'm aware these chapters are getting shorter progressively. This one could have been longer, but I decided that the ending conversation was a good place to end it. And now, here's the chapter:**

**THE CHASE**

Vahlahn sighed, looking around the landscape. He had seen no more Charr, but his senses weren't quite as sharp as they usually were. Leine was not only hanging off of him, but had her head rested on his shoulder, clearly suffering from minor concussion. It distracted him, to say the least. He eventually came to a decision and turned to Maialin.

"I suggest we stop here." He told her. It wasn't actually a suggestion, but an order. "I think Leine needs rest." She looked as if she was asleep anyway, slumped against Vahlahn, but the fact that her feet had kept moving betrayed this illusion.

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Maialin replied, dropping the heavy bag off her back. She sighed, being free from the weight.

"You alright to stand?" Vahlahn asked Leine, who nodded sleepily. He took her arm from around him and she stumbled a bit, losing her balance. She righted herself against Vahlahn quickly and smiled.

"Sorry." She said quietly. She sat down awkwardly on the hard ground while Maialin turned back to Vahlahn.

"You want me to set up the tent?" She asked. Vahlahn paused thoughtfully.

"No." He decided. "Too risky. I say we move to the cover of those rocks there, and sleep in the open tonight."

"Leine will never agree to that." Maialin smirked.

"I don't think that'll be a problem." Vahlahn laughed, gesturing to Leine. She was already asleep, curled up on the ground. "I think that blow to her head may have hurt her a little more than we thought." He added.

"She's gonna be okay, though? Right?" Maialin asked, the concern in her voice showing how much she actually cared for her friend.

"I'd imagine she'll wake up tomorrow with a headache and nothing more." Vahlahn smiled. "I looked her over while she was resting against me. That blood just comes from a cut, nothing serious."

"Well, let's go with your plan then." Maialin smiled. "Just don't wake her."

"I won't." Vahlahn laughed.

The two soon sat under the cover of a jutting out rock, Leine sleeping peacefully beside them. Night had fallen, and Maialin was huddled in her sleeping bag, and still cold. Vahlahn seemed unfazed by the cold. They had decided to not light a fire, in case they attracted any unwanted Charr attention. They had placed Leine in her sleeping bag too, to make sure she didn't wake up cold during the night. Maialin smiled to herself.

"Just the two of us, Vahlahn. Time to explain yourself." She decided.

"Explain myself?" Vahlahn asked.

"Yeah. You gonna tell me why a Charr, a fearless beast and mortal enemy of the human race, turned and ran in fear when it looked at you?"

"I would like to." Vahlahn told her with a smile. "And maybe one day I will." Maialin crossed her arms in frustration.

"That's not fair!" She protested.

"All you should be concerned with is the fact that you are safe. Not how it happened." Vahlahn said with a slight smile. Maialin looked like a sulking child, her arms folded tightly and her body turned away.

"You shouldn't be keeping secrets!" She moaned, sounding a little more like Leine than she would have liked.

"Everybody have secrets, and some I cannot tell you." Vahlahn replied. "Now, get some rest. It is late, and on a journey like this, we have no idea what tomorrow will bring."

Maialin woke up and rolled to her side. She blinked groggily. Leine wasn't there anymore. She got up slowly, slipping out of her sleeping bag and into the now hot sun. Vahlahn seemed to be slumped against the rock edge, asleep, but literally with one eye open. It was very creepy, so she turned away, and decided to find Leine.

Leine was sat on a rock just outside of the cave, so she didn't have to look far. Her hair was wet and styled carefully, now clean of any of the blood that stained it.

"Where did you find water out here?" Maialin asked, slightly shocked.

"I used some from my water flask." She replied.

"You _what_?" Maialin gasped in disbelief.

"I had all crusty blood stuck in my hair. It was disgusting." Leine replied.

"We don't have much water! You can't go wasting it!" Maialin cried.

"Come on, we aren't far from meeting up with the Duke. It'll be fine." Leine smiled.

"I think that knock to your head did more damage than we thought." Maialin grumbled. She sighed, deciding to change the subject. Leine was most likely still hurt, and didn't deserve Maialin telling her off for her mistakes again. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got run over by a wagon." She responded. "But better than yesterday." She added in an attempt to sound slightly braver, not that it worked. "My ankle doesn't hurt much anymore. I think that healing magic of yours solved that problem."

"They'll be more powerful monks when we reach the Duke." Maialin told her. "That should patch the rest of you up." Leine smiled.

"Glad to hear it." She replied. "My head hurts whenever I move it. It's getting to be distracting." She rubbed her temples, and decided it hurt more, so stopped.

"You two ready to go?" Came a voice from Vahlahn, who hadn't moved. Both jumped, and turned around to face him. He got up as if he hadn't been asleep, but just sat, watching. "I suggest we get moving." Maialin turned around with a grumble and wondered over to the pack. Leine stood up and followed her, clearly able to walk now. She was tempted to pretend she couldn't, so that she could have support for the rest of the journey, but decided against it.

Maialin hauled the pack onto her back, but Vahlahn quickly rose his hand, signalling her to stop.

"Put it down." He ordered. She did so.

"Why?" She asked.

"Listen." He instructed. She did so. There was something on the other side of the slope they had sheltered under. She couldn't quite make out the noise, but it didn't sound good. Vahlahn began to slowly climb up the slope, and Maialin followed. The two fell deathly silent.

Leine tried to follow, but slipped on the slope, stones crumbling away beneath her feet.

"What is it?" She whispered.

"Charr." Vahlahn replied through an icy jaw. "And a lot of them." Leine scrambled, sliding again, but eventually making it to the top. Her eyes went wide and her body froze.

A group of the beasts were gathered, easily four dozen Charr, if not more.

"They must be planning to attack the Duke and force him and his forces out.." Maialin figured.

"We have to get to the Duke. We need to warn him so that he can form a defence." Vahlahn told her.

"Will he be able to defend against that?" Maialin asked.

"Yes. If we have enough time." Vahlahn guessed. "This is what the Charr have been up to. Organising an attack on the captured land. I'd imagine there are more groups around, they're going to attack from all sides."

"What do we do?" Squeaked Leine.

"Run." Vahlahn's face dropped. "They've seen us! RUN!"

The three adventurers slid down the slope as the sound of stampeding Charr approached them.

"Run? Where?" Leine screamed.

"Make for the Duke! He should have enough guards to hold them back! RUN!" The three began to run as the Charr ascended the slope and skidded down after them. They ran as fast as they could , arrows beginning to rain down around them. Leine turned with a shriek as one headed straight for her, but a flash of blue meant it was gone before it hit. She stumbled a bit in confusion, and continued running, deciding it was just one of those things to be thankful for.

Unfortunately, her own ability to keep running didn't match up with her determination. The Charr were much faster than she was, and she was falling behind. Vahlahn and Maialin kept ahead, but it turned out she was much slower, and she was already completely out of breath. They turned and scrambled up one of the slopes, obviously hoping it would slow down the Charr. Leine tried to follow, but slipped, and collapsed, panting. Maialin skidded to a stop.

"LEINE!" She managed to scream. The Charr were practically on top of her. Vahlahn leapt, seemingly flying through the air, and landed in front of her.

"Get behind me!" He ordered as he spread out his arms. Maialin nodded and did so, quickly. Leine was already sprawled behind him on the slope, panting. The Charr continued to charge, but separated as they approached Vahlahn, charging on either side, but not coming into contact with him. It was like a stone breaking the flow of a river. The Charr charged over the slope, ignoring the three. Vahlahn lowered his arms and turned back to the two. "Now, let's move, quickly. It won't take them long to realise you two were hidden behind me."

"What the hell was that?" Maialin asked angrily.

"No time to explain! We need to move!" Vahlahn barked. Maialin got to her feet and ran. Leine got up, slowly, doubled over, panting.

"Perhaps, you should go on without me." She gasped.

"Why are all mesmers so melodramatic?" Vahlahn sighed, picking her up and flinging her over his shoulder. He ran after Maialin while Leine dangled off of him, feeling very useless and helpless.

The three soon arrived at the mighty self built gate to the retaken land, a simple piece of the old city the Duke had pushed to recapture in the wake of the Searing, and been struggling to hold ever since. Vahlahn placed Leine down and the three wondered in, now knowing they were safe behind the guards. Leine was still panting heavily, even more so than Maialin and Vahlahn who had actually done much more running, and she collapsed on the floor to rest.

"Sorry." She panted. "I'm so pathetic sometimes."

"Sometimes?" Maialin joked. Leine smiled.

"I'll find the Duke and report to him what we saw. Arranging the guards quickly is all he'll need. A good defence will stop the Charr from even bothering to attack." Vahlahn explained. "You take Leine and help her find a monk to heal her wounds."

"Yessir!" Maialin saluted sarcastically. Vahlahn rolled his eyes and walked off. Maialin turned to Leine, who was still panting on the floor. "C'mon." She gestured. She rose an eyebrow as Leine put a hand up, signalling she wanted to catch her breath. "Wow. You're really unfit you know?"

"Shut up." Leine panted, getting up. "Just because we aren't all hardened war veterans and creepy elementalists!"

"So you noticed something was up with him to?" Maialin asked.

"You could say that." Leine gasped. "He's not normal, that's for sure! What did he do to those Charr back there to save me?" She wiped sweat from her brow and took a few more deep breaths.

"I don't know. But it certainly wasn't normal." Maialin said to herself. "We can't do anything about it. Come on, let's get you healed up." Leine got up, still breathing hard, but at least no longer panting. "I'll see if they have an exercise scheme they can assign to you at the same time." She joked. Leine shot her a stare.

Vahlahn folded his arms in front of the Duke with a slight smile.

"Vahlahn Ote." The Duke stated. "I never expected to see you again."

"Life is full of surprises." Vahlahn replied. "I learnt that on the day of the Searing."

"And not because Ascalon was destroyed, I sense." The Duke shot back with a smile of his own. Vahlahn's face twisted with painful memories.

"That was two years ago. It's best forgotten." He said with a gulp and his eyes shut. "There are more pressing matters. The Charr are planning to attack you."

"You sure?" The Duke asked, knowing fully well that Vahlahn was always sure.

"Yes. We ran into one of there groups, and only just escaped." Vahlahn answered.

"We? You're not travelling alone?" The Duke seemed slightly surprised. "I thought you would have issues with trust after last time."

"I know I can trust this girl. Her friend isn't a threat, even if she wanted to be." Vahlahn explained. "She's Maialin Roth." He told the Duke.

"Maialin? As in your-" The Duke began.

"Yes." Vahlahn replied. "The very same Maialin."

"Coincidence has always surrounded you, whether for good or bad." The Duke told him. "You'll need to tell her one day. What happened. You do realise this, don't you?"

"You need to get your defences ready. I counted at least forty Charr in the group we spotted, and I doubt they're the only group." Vahlahn decided to ignore the Duke's previous comment. "I suggest you fortify the area or pull out."

"We're not leaving." The Duke stated.

"Then get guards stationed all around." Vahlahn told him. "The Charr shall not attack if they see the threat is too great. They're smart. They won't start a battle they cannot win."

"You can help, your expertise on the Charr is what we need." The Duke said hopefully.

"No. My ties to Ascalon have been severed. I failed the city and the people. I won't fight for it again." Vahlahn turned. "Besides, we're heading to Shiverpeak to find an old friend."

"You realise she'll tell Maia the truth, even if you don't." The Duke smiled. Vahlahn looked over his shoulder.

"Good luck, old friend." He walked away, the Duke watching him leave.

"Thank you." The Duke said quietly.


	7. Memories of the Past

**Author's Note: Sorry I missed an update. Unfortunately, looks like I'll miss many more. Think I have my first case of writer's block. I've run out of ideas. The problem is that the plot for our heroes is very straightforward: go to the mountains, find sister. And anything that happens to them is just me throwing in obstacles, rather than the plot evolving. Vahlahn was given a mysterious past to make this more bearable, but it's still proving very hard. I thought quite hard about this, I mean, Lord of the Rings was just a long journey to throw away a ring with some obstacles thrown in, you knew the plot from the start, and that's one of the most famous stories ever written, so I _should _be able to pull this off in some way, but I'm finding it very difficult. So I may slow down updates.**

**This one is shorter than usual, because I just couldn't write anything. On the bright side, you get more hints to Vahlahn's past as aided by the wonderful formula of italics and flashbacks!**

**MEMORIES OF THE PAST**

Vahlahn approached Leine and Maialin, who seemed engrossed in some conversation. He didn't really care what about.

"Leine? You healed?" He asked.  
"Yes!" She answered cheerfully. "They even taught me some of their spells!"

"Turns out she never learnt anything from any other profession." Maialin input.

"What do you mean?" Leine asked, confused. Maialin sighed.

"You can't be serious. You know, how everybody has two professions. Like I'm a necromancer, but I also know monk spells?" She muttered something to herself. "You see, now you're a mesmer, and a monk." She turned to Vahlahn. "And Vahlahn here is an elementalist and a-" She paused. "What you are, Vahlahn?"

"Tired." He replied with a smirk. "And hungry." Maialin rolled her eyes, and for once it wasn't at Leine. "So why don't we get some food that we only have to pay for, not cook, while we're here?" He suggested. "And then, I'm going to see if I can something to replace this." He tugged at his own burnt, torn and beaten clothing. Leine looked down at her own.  
"Me too." She decided.

"You're going to try and replace Vahlahn's clothes?" Maialin mocked. Leine scowled at her.

"You know what I meant!" She shot.

"Unfortunately, I don't think we can rest here." Vahlahn told them. "The Charr may still attack, and I'd prefer to not be here when they do."

"We might be able to help!" Leine suggested, prompting Maialin to laugh slightly. "Hey!" She protested, realising that Maialin was laughing at the concept of Leine helping.

"Our help is not needed." Vahlahn stated. "Besides, it would slow down our journey considerably." Leine looked around the area. It was dirty and beaten. Mere ruins, now war torn, reclaimed but only for a temporary time, or so it seemed. She didn't want to stay there any longer than she had to.

"Okay, let's go." She agreed, at least knowing her conscience was settled. "But food and clothes first, right?"

"Right." Vahlahn smiled.

Leine emerged from a tent some time later, one set up by a clothier and armourer, dressed in neat, and more importantly (to her at least), clean clothes. She wore boots similar to before, but this time ordained with gold running over them in an ivory pattern, tight green trousers and a new jacket and shirt, similar to before, but newer, cleaner, and ordained with gold around the edges. Maialin stood outside, dressed in new armour, it covered more of her body and was tighter than before, but overall lighter and easier to move in. It seemed to be stronger despite this, black ordained with crimson lining. She smiled to Leine.

"I see you went with the traditional stuff." She smirked.

"What? I like green." Leine replied. "Besides, it's what all mesmer wear, so it's what I wear." She explained.

"Well, this is the traditional necromancer armour, so I can't say much." She shrugged. "Except that armour is better than clothing, in a fight, of course." She added.  
"Only if you get hit." Vahlahn's voice came from behind. They turned to see him, slightly surprised to see that he was now cleanly shaven, his greying hair cut shorter and styled neatly and a heavy grey jacket, complete with spiked shoulder pads and short sleeves placed over him. The image of bolts of lightning was proudly sewn on the front, a little touch from the clothier that made it. Long spiked gloves ran up his hands, and he suddenly had the image of being very powerful. More so than just the bad feeling Maialin had been getting before. "And I don't know about you Leine, but I don't intend to." He smiled.

"Hey, I'm a coward, I never plan to get hit." Leine laughed.

"I don't think even the bravest _plan _to get hit." Maialin pointed out.

"We should move out." Vahlahn decided. "I want to be as far away from this place as possible before we stop to rest. Whatever happens here, it won't be good to be near when it does."

"I hate just running off like this, leaving Pikken Square to its own fate." Maialin mumbled.

"We're at war, we can't be around for every battle." Vahlahn explained. "Now come on." He began walking without saying anything else. Maialin and Leine glanced at each other and followed.

Leine sighed heavily as they stepped back out into the ruins of Ascalon. She looked around.  
"Do you ever wonder if it's worth it?" She asked. "I mean, look around us. Who's to say the rest of the world isn't in the same state? Do we even know if the dwarfs have survived up on Shiverpeak?"

"They're alive." Vahlahn stated. "And the Kingdom of Kryta survived too, we've had messengers from there. Orr was less lucky. They say it was just sucked into non-existence." He told her.

"Non-existence?" Leine trembled.

"Nobody knows what happened to it." Vahlahn answered. "The world's in pretty bad shape, but we'll survive."

"I hope so." Leine muttered. "I still remember the Searing. The sky burnt and the oceans boiled. We thought it was the end of the world." Vahlahn's face fell.

"_Look what you've done! It's the end of the world!"_

"_Oh no, this is the new birth. The Charr shall rise, and rule, and I shall be at their side!"_

"_At their side? Listen to yourself! You're insane!"_

"_You know nothing of what drives me!"_

Maialin smirked slightly.

"Yeah, I remember you crying a lot." She mocked. "Sobbing about how it was all over."

"If I remember rightly, you shed a tear or two, as well." Leine put in.

"I think everybody did, that day." Vahlahn said quietly, lost in memory.

"_You were my partner! We were supposed to stop the war, not start it!"_

"_There was no stopping it. It was always inevitable."_

"What do you think we'll find in Shiverpeak?" Leine asked.

"We have to get there first." Vahlahn reminded her. "So worry about that later. We have the journey to accomplish."

"Once we're there we still need to search for Arziel." Maialin pointed out. "That's not going to be easy either."

"How did things get so complicated?" Leine sighed.

"Because we relaxed and never saw this coming." Vahlahn explained painfully.

"_You never saw it coming? All those years and you didn't see it? This is why Ascalon deserves its fate. The citizen's of Ascalon are so blinded by their petty wars they'll never see the truth coming, not until the skies burn over them!"_

"_I cannot allow you to do this! You know I can't! I will stop you!"_

Leine scanned the ruins again.  
"I miss it so much." She said quietly. "The old life. Family! I lost everybody."

"Me too." Maialin muttered. "Except Arziel. It's funny, I just always knew she wasn't dead. My father was out in it too, you know? He was a member of the Ascalon Guard, and he died in the Searing. But I knew he was dead. But not Arziel."

"Perhaps the Gods are guiding us." Vahlahn said, as if to change the subject. "It's nice to think that they haven't abandoned us fully."

"_Where are your Gods now, Vahlahn? Where are they? They've abandoned you as Ascalon burns! And from the ashes of Ascalon the Charr shall rise and rule! Your Gods are gone, Vahlahn! And I am victorious!"_

Vahlahn sighed.

"Standing around here all day is pointless." He decided. "What happened can't be changed. We need to get moving." Vahlahn walked away before anybody could protest. Leine and Maialin followed quickly, not wanting to be left behind.


	8. A Swift Decision

**Author's Note: I missed another update, but here's the next chapter. Another atrocious chapter title, I'm afraid, I'm really bad at naming them.**

**  
Currently I'm struggling with the whole idea of writing a much shorter story, I'm used to writing long ones, but this one was only ever designed to be about twelve chapters. How I'll pull it off with a satisfying climax I'm not too sure yet, but hopefully I'll come up with something. Still finding it quite hard to keep the plot flowing, so I might have to stick to updating every two days, we'll see. I'm glad people don't mind the slower updates, although I do feel a bit bad about it, like I'm letting you all down. I'm glad to see Phabrizoe got Guild Wars at least! I hope he's enjoying it. Remember, whisper me if anybody plays the game and wants to find me (which, admiringly, is unlikely). I'm Leine Chuth, but you can whisper any of the other characters in this story too, since they're real (that being Maialin Roth and Vahlahn Ote). Okay, we're not exactly like our story counterparts, but you can still find us if you want!**

**Anyway, here's the chapter. I actually want to say something else, but I'll wait until afterwards.**

**A SWIFT DECISION**

The thin trail of smoke rising from the burnt out fire was all but invisible against the night's sky. Leine was curled up asleep by the smouldering ashes, Maialin on the other side slept peacefully. Vahlahn was propped up against a rock some distance away, appearing to be more in a trance than asleep.

His eyes jolted open at a faint sound in the distance, one so quiet it could easily go ignored or unheard by anybody who had even been informed of its presence. He stood quickly, wasting no time, and lifted his staff.  
"Leine. Maialin." He stated simply. Neither responded, both soundly asleep. "Leine! Maialin!" He snapped. The two jolted awake.

"What is it?" Maialin asked groggily.

"I don't want to get up yet." Leine moaned, in a sleepy trance.

"We've got a problem." He explained.

"Problem?" Maialin yawned, sitting up and rolling her neck, it aching from the solid floor. Vahlahn had told them not to bother with the tent again, which meant sleeping without any cover. Leine had still slept on the mat she had brought along, so she was a little more comfortable than her necromancer companion.

"Charr. Approaching from the East. Lots of them." Vahlahn told them. Leine bolted up.

"Charr? Are you sure?" She cried hysterically.

"Yes, now be quiet." He snarled. "Listen. Hear that?"

"I don't hear anything!" Leine replied, clearly panicked.

"That low beat in the background. Almost like a hum." The two women listened carefully.

"Wait. I hear it." Maialin said with a gulp.

"That's the sound of marching Charr. Unmistakable." Vahlahn paused. "Judging by their pace-"

"How can you hear their pace?" Leine asked, confused.

"Shut up." He replied simply, knowing that they didn't have time to talk. "Judging by their pace, they're retreating. I think they must be the failed assault force on Pikken Square." He paused. "If I know the Charr, and I do, they'll be eager for a victory after being forced to retreat."

"How come you're such an expert on the Charr, anyway?" Maialin decided to ask, still seeking information on who Vahlahn really was.

"There's no time for idle chatter." Vahlahn dismissed her question with a wave of his hand. "We need to get prepared."

"I think there was a cave back there!" Leine suggested. "If we put out the last of the fire, and get in the cave, they should march straight by."

"They've already seen the fire, I'm certain." Vahlahn told her. "But that's not a problem. Fires are common in these parts. The cave will provide shelter-" He paused. "-If we were running."

"Wait. What are you saying?" Maialin asked curiously.

"No more running." He smiled slightly. "We fight!"

"Fight?" Leine screamed. "What can we do against them? They're an _invasion force_!"

"Yeah, there's only two of us. We can't do anything against that many." Maialin found herself agreeing with Leine, but apparently making some mistake.

"There's three of us, Maia." Leine pointed out.

"Oh, I meant 'two who can fight'." She said with a mocking grin towards Leine. Leine folded her arms and muttered something angrily.

"The Charr are powerful, but only if we allow them to get close." Vahlahn explained. "Leine? Can you cast Chaos Storm?"

"Urm, yes." She answered. "I mean, I've never tried, but somebody in Pikken Square showed me how." She paused. "But that's not going to work! It can only hit three targets at best, it's a tiny area, and they'd have to be right next to each other. Not to mention it'll only sting the Charr, not kill them!"

"Leave that to me." Smiled Vahlahn smugly. "Maialin, we need you to work on the corpses."

"What corpses?" Maialin asked in confusion.

"After Leine's first attack, they'll be plenty." Vahlahn assured, confusing both Leine and Maialin. "Resurrect them into your own bone horrors."

"Oh, gross!" Leine exclaimed. "I hate it when she does that!"

"This has to be done." Vahlahn explained with a slight sigh. "From there, the bone horrors will engage the Charr. While they're distracted, I'll rain fire down on them." He smiled slightly at the irony. "We should then be able to mop up any survivors easily."

"Why don't we just run?" Leine whimpered.

"The Charr are hungry for a victory. If they find any evidence of us existing, footprints in the ash, for example, they will hunt us down." Vahlahn gave in answer. "We _have _to fight. And we will win."

The Charr commander came to halt. He snarled slightly as he looked down. Footprints. Three sets. Fire in the distance, too weak to be created by one of the Charr altars. He paused, and let out a snarl to his group. Humans nearby, in their own territory. Angry at being repelled, this was a perfect opportunity for revenge. An opportunity to strike back against the pathetic humans. The fire was dwindling, they may not be there. But it was the place to start. He motioned for his comrades to follow him, and began to journey towards the smoke. They followed, letting out excited growls. The day would not be a failure, after all.

"Chaos Storm!" Came a nervous squeak from a hill. The Charr looked up curiously as a small purple storm appeared in the middle of them, lashing at one and hurting him slightly until he moved out of the way. The Charr group looked up to see a woman in green stood, shaking nervously. They smiled. This was the best the humans had to offer? A figure came up beside her. A different figure, dressed in grey clothes with-

No. It couldn't be him. Could it? The Charr let out frightened whispers to each other, but it was too late. Vahlahn's face became a smile, and with a flick of his wrist a mighty whirlwind formed in the centre of the group, the Chaos Storm becoming magnified by the whirlwind, growing to an incredible size as a whirling purple burst of energy caught up in the wind. It lashed and tore through the Charr as it spun, sending them flying through the air by its tremendous force and ripping into their flesh with its energy. Leine's mouth hung open in shock and Vahlahn smirked.

"Didn't know you had it in you, huh Leine?" He joked casually. Leine just looked at him in awe. The now mighty purple storm faded, leaving ripped apart Charr in its wake. Several survivors had made it to the outside of the powerful attack, and were now ready to charge. "Maia! Now!" Maialin ran to his side, and started casting spells quickly. The Charr stopped at the sickly sound of bone and flesh being reconstructed, and turned as one by one their dead comrades rose. The fleshy creatures limped oddly, before picking up into a scurry and attacking the Charr. The Charr began to fight back. The bone horrors were no match for fully trained Charr, but the attack was such a surprise that they were panicked, confused. And with _him _overlooking them, they were afraid. The Charr, the mighty beasts that towered over humans, the horrific monsters that tore through Ascalon leaving only corpses and ash, the army that had almost destroyed mankind in this part of the world, were afraid. Frightened. And for good reason.

Vahlahn was hovering in the air, his eyes burning with flames. He lifted his arms in the air, and from the sky fire rocketed down. It was a common elementalist spell; Fire Storm, but it seemed more powerful than normal. It crashed down, burning into the Charr and setting them alight. They squealed and roared, retreating as they burnt. Vahlahn landed with an evil chuckle before pulling his arm back and sending out a bolt of lightning, striking down one of the burning Charr. He fired another one, hitting yet another Charr. Maialin and Leine watched in awe as he tore apart the Charr invasion force, no match for his powerful magic. They would have cast something, but there was no point. The Charr scattered and retreated, howling in uncharacteristic panic. Leine didn't think that Charr were even _capable_ of being afraid, but right now it was clear. They ran, they screamed, and they died, all at the hands of Vahlahn.

A roar from behind made Leine jump, emitting a small shriek. Maialin spun around to see one of the Charr had successfully snuck up behind the group. She quickly began to cast a spell to steal its life energy while Leine shook uselessly in fear.

"Do something!" Maialin snapped. Leine nodded, and quickly cast empathy on the beast. The Charr swung its tribal blade down at Maialin, who dove and rolled to the side. She brought up her staff as it slashed, but the hit carried such strength her staff clattered away. Unarmed, Maialin looked up, beginning to feel fear grip her. The Charr roared, enjoying watching her cower. Leine ran, hitting it with her staff.

"Leave her alone!" She snapped, but couldn't hit hard enough to so much as distract the Charr. She frowned, and stepped back, quickly casting Chaos Storm on the creature. The small purple storm lashed up, slicing into the Charr. This was enough to cause it to turn around, and face Leine. Of course, having now distracted it from Maialin, she had to handle it, and knew she couldn't. She stumbled back in fear, before tripping over a rock and landing painfully. The Charr now advanced on her, but was blast to the back by energy from Maialin's staff. The monster's face turned to grim resolve, it would refuse to change target again. It knew getting trapped between the two could doom it, so it decided to finish off Leine first, then target Maialin.

It never got the chance. Vahlahn, now satisfied with his work against the bulk of the Charr, had noticed the battle taking place behind him. As soon as Vahlahn turned, the Charr sensed it, and ran, leaving Leine and Maialin behind. Maialin placed her staff on her back, and Vahlahn sighed, obviously magically drained. Leine was still shaking on the ground, obviously frightened.

"That was a little close." Maialin panted.

"It was under control." Vahlahn reassured.  
"Care to explain why yet another Charr ran away from you?" Maialin asked, helping Leine to her feet. "And why you're so powerful?"

"You deserve part of an explanation, Maialin, so I'll give you that. A part." He said sternly, looking into her eyes. "I'm Ambassador Vahlahn Ote, of the Kingdom of Ascalon."

"Ambassador?" Leine repeated, still shaking.

"Yes. Ambassador. To the Charr." He stated. Leine and Maialin traded shocked glances.

"_What_?" Maialin asked in total disbelief.

"Before the Searing, during the height of the Guild Wars, we became aware of the Charr and the possibility they'd use our own war as the perfect time to attack." Vahlahn explained.

"We?" Maialin picked up on.

"Yes. Myself and a close friend." Vahlahn explained. "We took it upon ourselves to negotiate with the Charr, to stop the war. And soon we did. We learnt their language, they learnt ours, all was good. It seemed we could keep the peace."

"But you didn't." Maialin observed.

"No." Vahlahn stated. "Arziel and I became close friends shortly after I met her, and I stayed in the city more often with her, thinking that peace with the Charr would last." Vahlahn paused. "I was wrong."

"What about your friend?" Leine asked.

"He spent time with the Charr, more than he did with me." Vahlahn sighed. "But his influence wasn't enough. They betrayed and murdered him, just before beginning the assault on Ascalon."

"How do you know that?" Maialin questioned, still sounding suspicious.

"The day of the Searing wasn't an ordinary day, I became aware that the Charr were up to something. I went out to investigate, with Arziel. We saw what the Charr did to him, I tried to save him, but failed. I fought the Charr, but couldn't defeat them. Arziel and I became cut off." He sighed. "By the time we managed to meet up again, the Charr had begun the Searing. The sky burnt and the fires fell. There was nothing we could do but run from their wrath. We never managed to return to Ascalon again, but we escaped with our lives."

"You were out fighting as the Searing happened?" Leine questioned in awe.

"_Look around you Vahlahn! Look at it happening right now! It's over! It's ended! The end of the human world by my hand!"_

"Yes. Yes I was." Vahlahn said quietly. "That is who I am. That is what happened."

"Why are you so powerful, then?" Leine asked while Maialin contemplated what he had told her.

"Experience." He stated. "I've been through a lot, and seen everything. When I was younger, and bolder, I fought in the Guild Wars. After that, I fought just about everything, keeping the safety of Ascalon. We were both powerful magicians, us Ambassadors, which is why we knew we could do the job. I was the elementalist, obviously, and he was a necromancer." Vahlahn smiled. "Maialin, you once asked me what the other profession I had studied was. It was necromancer. I learnt everything I know from the friend the Charr betrayed." He sighed. "Hopefully now you realise why I don't like talking about it."

"Sorry." Maialin said quietly.

"It's okay. You deserve to know." He replied. "The Charr are afraid of me because they saw what I could do on the day of the Searing. I almost stopped it. They remember me from when I was an Ambassador, and they remember the power I showed. It frightens them." He laughed slightly. "I'm one of only two humans who ever could have." Leine and Maialin fell awkwardly silent. "Come on, we need to get moving." He decided, trying to change the mood that hung over the party.

"It's still the middle of the night." Leine moaned.

"Perhaps." Vahlahn smirked slightly. "But there will be no more Charr around. We can cover some ground without constant worry of attack. And you can't tell me that doesn't sound appealing." Leine yawned.

"Fine." She muttered. "But I want a nice long _peaceful _night's sleep _in the tent _afterwards."

"Okay." Vahlahn smiled. "You've got a deal. Now let's go gather up what we can from the tent and get moving." Vahlahn began to walk away. Leine followed, but Maialin stood still for a moment. She couldn't help feeling that there was something Vahlahn had left out from his story, but she had no idea what it was.

She sighed. There was nothing she could do. She followed with a shake of her head.

**Other Author's Note: Just a point, that's most of Vahlahn's back story revealed, and I am aware the fact that he may not be telling the entire truth is fairly clear, and it's probably very predictable what happened with the flashback text from the last chapter (and anybody who's aware of the same theme I _keep _repeating in my writing, I'm crap like that). However, there is one plot twist there that you won't know! (Except Vahlahn, who I kinda told, sorry about that!). Or at least, only guess by luck!**

**Oh, and a note on an older review. Zin mentioned bible stories with Vahlahn parting the Charr. He's thinking of Moses parting the river, and yes, I thought that too. Was tempted to describe it 'like Moses parting the river', but released that there are no bible stories in the world of Guild Wars! But at least I wasn't the only one thinking that.**


	9. The Base Of The Mountain

**Author's Note: I apologise this has been so long. I've tried very hard to write, but I've really just been unable too. It's utterly my fault, no distractions, I haven't been too busy, but a combination of writer's block and crippling fear of going to Uni (it only recently hit me that I'm actually leaving my friends, my family and my city behind to live alone in a place I've never properly visited) has made it very difficult to write.**

**I know there are readers out there, so I feel really bad letting you down with the long wait. I was especially touched when I got a whisper on Guild Wars from somebody who really enjoyed it (I severely apologise, but in stupidity I lost your name when I accidentally closed Guild Wars, so couldn't reply or talk with you again, but a big thank you for all your kind words!). So I _will _finish this story. It's supposed to be short anyway, Vahlahn's back story was meant to be just that, back details to flesh out the story a bit, the main story still runs.**

**This chapter reveals a lot. I didn't want to reveal it this early, but with writer's block, I figured I best go with the plot details I _did _have worked out. I'm very sorry for the long wait. I can't guarantee it won't happen again, sadly, but I'll do my best. But I _will _finish the story, it might not be very long, few chapters, this was always designed to be short, but it will be finished! I swear! I will not abandon it!**

**For the record, that's still only three days without an update, so I guess I might be being a bit melodramatic, but it feels like a lifetime considering my 'update once a day' policy.**

**THE BASE OF THE MOUNTAIN**

Maialin let out an impressed whistle.

"Now ain't that a sight." She commented in awe. Leine stopped, panting and wiping sweat from her brow.  
"It's about time. We've been travelling for days." Leine sighed. Vahlahn just looked at the massive mountains with a casual smirk.

"We still need to _climb _them, you realise?" He laughed slightly as Leine's face fell. The massive Shiverpeak Mountains stretched out before them, reaching up into snowy peaks. "And it'll be no picnic once we're up there."

"What? Why?" Leine quickly asked, obviously nervous. "We're leaving the Charr _behind_, right?"

"Right." Vahlahn stated. "But the dwarves live up in the mountains."

"I thought the dwarves liked us." Leine pointed out.

"Yeah, the King has been friends with our King for years." Maialin, in a rare moment, agreed with Leine.

"You've not heard of the Stone Summit?" Vahlahn inquired.  
"What's that? The peak of the mountain?" Leine guessed, quickly figuring out she was wrong when Vahlahn chuckled to himself.

"Not quite, no." He laughed. "The dwarves are split into two factions. One, are the ones you listed, the ones who are friendly, accepting to humans. Hell, we'll probably be pretty popular, they don't see humans up there very often."

"And the other's the Stone Summit?" Maialin guessed.

"Yes." Vahlahn stated. "They're slightly less welcoming."

"Less welcoming?" Leine asked.

"They kill anything non-dwarf. And dwarves." Vahlahn stated.

"So, everything, then?" Maialin observed.

"Well, yes, but that didn't quite come out right." Vahlahn chuckled slightly. "What I meant was that they kill any humans and any dwarves that sympathise with humans. They feel only hatred for us, no sympathy, no second thoughts. They think of killing us like stepping on a fly."

"So we're leaving an area overrun by murderous monsters to head to a new area overrun my murderous monsters?" Maialin pondered. "Even if they are a little on the short side."

"That's the basics of it, yes." Vahlahn told them. "But hopefully they shouldn't give us any trouble."

"That sounds uncharacteristically optimistic of you, Vahlahn." Maialin smirked.

"Well, Arziel's been up there for a year at least." He pointed out. "I'd be surprised if there are any Stone Summit left for us to kill by the time we're there." He grinned, before walking on. Maialin smiled warmly, following quickly, before Leine raced after them, wishing they had taken a longer rest at the site of the mountain.

Their small tent, pitched halfway up the mountain, was hammered by the strong winds. Even Vahlahn had agreed a tent was a good idea at the face of the piercing cold, even though he wasn't stood within. He was overlooking the view from the mountain, looking at the ruined Ascalon. He heard footsteps behind him, and turned, slightly surprised to see that it was Leine, not Maialin.

"Are you alright?" She asked gently.

"Of course." Vahlahn smiled, turning back to face her. "This is just the best place to see what the Charr did. See what they did to us, to Ascalon, the damage they caused."

"You think you could have stopped it, don't you?" Leine guessed. Vahlahn glanced away.

"I don't think. I _know_." Vahlahn told her. "I know that I could have. But I grew too casual, I let our peace slip away."

"It should never have been one man's responsibility, to keep the peace." Leine said softly. "Nobody could keep peace with beings that hate us that much."

"You don't understand." Vahlahn sighed. "I never saw it coming."

"Nobody expected that the Charr would-"  
"I'm not talking about the Charr!" Vahlahn snapped. "Arziel was young, and had just started exploring. She needed somebody to watch over her." He sighed. "I took the job. I was her guardian."

"What's this got to do-"

"That left Xantos with the Charr." He interrupted Leine, bringing his hand to his forehead in weariness.

"Xantos? Your partner?" Leine guessed. "Nice name for a necromancer."

"Did you really buy that 'betrayed and murdered' story?" He asked suddenly. Leine rose an eyebrow.

"What really happened?" She asked with a gulp.

"Xantos betrayed us to the Charr. He told them everything, where to strike, how to get past the guards. The Searing was just one stage of the Charr invasion, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as effective without intelligence information. Xantos provided it all right under my nose." He growled lowly. "And if I had seen it coming, if I had _noticed_, I could have stopped it. I could have ended it."

"Don't blame yourself. You couldn't have seen it coming." Leine had a terrible feeling she was just being a distant, ineffectual voice on Vahlahn. "Nobody could see their friend betraying them."

"Do you know the ultimate twist?" Vahlahn laughed. "He asked me to look after Arziel. I spent time with Arziel as per his request. He must have been planning it all along. He got me out of the way so that he could continue his plot with the Charr."

"Really? Why? Did he know Arziel?" Leine asked.

"Know her?" Vahlahn laughed slightly. "She was his daughter."

"What?" Leine exclaimed in shock. "But that means Maia is-"

"That's why I didn't tell the truth." Vahlahn explained. "Maialin is the daughter of the man who doomed Ascalon. She may figure out that he was her father, after all, she knows he was a necromancer, and an ambassador, and how many of those can there be?" He paused, sighing. "But I want her to think her father died in good spirit, as a good soul."

"Doesn't it concern you that Maialin chose to become a necromancer? That she might follow in her father's footsteps?" Leine asked, perhaps bringing up her own concerns.

"Every dammed day since she began studying necromancy." Vahlahn answered. "Her recklessness made me even more fearful. The irony is that the I think the Searing brought out the best in her."

"I don't. She's all bitter and mean now." Leine paused. "Well, meaner than she was."

"But she has a urge to fight evil now, to protect the innocent and destroy the villainous." He smiled. "A trait her father clearly didn't share." Leine fell silent, chewing her lip, before speaking up again.

"Why?" She asked. "Why was he like that?"

"Why was he evil?" Vahlahn laughed. "How can anybody answer that? I only know that he was. Whether he became it, the time with the Charr twisted him, or whether he always was, I may never know. But I don't need too."

"You don't?" Leine questioned.

"No." Vahlahn smiled. "Knowing wouldn't change anything. And at least this way, I can believe that there was some good in my friend."

"How did he die?" Leine knew it was a sensitive question, but asked anyway.

"We fought. I won." Vahlahn stated. "Kind of ironic."

"What was?"

"He was killed by the fires of the Searing. A flaming strike came down and hit him, killing him instantly." He laughed. "We fought, but we couldn't kill each other. Not us two. He was killed by his own devices." Leine fell silent. There wasn't much else she could say.

She had stayed silent when they woke up in the morning, looking at Maialin now gave her an uneasy chill. How was she supposed to keep everything Vahlahn told her secret? More to the point, how could she tell anybody because _they were walking so dammed fast! _Maialin and Vahlahn had picked up their pace, and were heading up the mountain slope briskly. Leine found herself lagging behind as usual, quickly running out of breath when she tried to keep up, and the upward walk making her even more exhausted. She couldn't even see them any more, they had ascended so far and turned ahead of her they were out of sight, and she was panting uselessly, barely able to keep walking.

She decided that they were gone, and that she might as well rest, sitting down on a nearby rock. She was never going to catch them up, and couldn't go much further anyway. She cursed herself for not being fitter, and then took some deep gulps from her water flask. A scurrying on the rocks behind her made sure she leapt to her feet (dropping and spilling the contents of the flask in the process). A strange armoured figure stood before her, short, shorter than her by about a head height, with two peering red eyes gleaming out of its helmet. It must be a dwarf, that much was obvious by its height, and it seemed to be evil.

"Urm, hello?" Leine stammered nervously. It took a step towards her, and she stumbled back. It drew a huge, heavy axe. "Um, are you okay?" She managed to say, despite her fear almost keeping her jaw shut. Its eyes focused on her, and it closed in with a swing of its deadly weapon. Leine screeched, jumping back, trying to block it with her staff. The force of the blow simply knocked her staff from her hands, and it flew off the edge of the mountain. "MAIA! VAHLAHN! HELP! HELP ME!" She shrieked, and turned to run. The dwarf was much faster than her, and leapt to tackle her. She crashed down and quickly became helplessly pinned by the dwarf, completely unable to move. She squirmed futilely as it held her down with its legs and one arm, and rose its axe with the other.

"Chaos Storm!" She screamed in desperation. The dwarf was caught up in the tiny purple vortex as it lashed at him, and Leine managed to crawl out, unaffected by her own spell. She got up, and began to run again. The dwarf shook off the minor injuries it had sustained from the spell and jumped at her again.

It collided with her, this time knocking her off the edge of the mountain. She shrieked as she fell, rolling down the slope, her frail body taking hit after hit on the jagged rocks. The dwarf too was lost, not thinking twice about sacrificing its life to take a pathetic human with it. The two tumbled down the mountain, and Leine was convinced she was going to die.

To her surprise, she didn't. She woke up, not knowing how long it had been. Everything hurt, her body was badly battered and bruised, and she was sprawled amongst a pile of rocks, as if she had been trapped in an avalanche. Her head hurt badly, and her ankle was throbbing with pain. She tried to pull it to her, but she couldn't move it, and the pressure of trying sent pain rocketing up with so much force she almost threw up. She looked down, and cursed. Her ankle was trapped under a pile of rocks, and clearly broken under the weight. She couldn't even try to pull it out under this much pain.

She quickly got to work casting what healing spells she knew, and sighed with relief as her injuries healed themselves. Her magic wasn't the most powerful, but she had nothing else to do, so kept casting, and then resting for her magical energies to recharge. Eventually, the wounds were gone, bar the immense pain of the rocks bearing down on her ankle. She pulled and tugged, but couldn't work it free, and caused herself a great deal of pain trying. She wriggled to the rock, and tried to life it off, but it was fairly large, and far too heavy for her. She sighed, and collapsed, growling at how pathetically weak she was. She tried again, grunting and tugging on the rock with all of her might, but she simply wasn't strong enough. She collapsed and started to cry. She was going to die, trapped on a mountain slide, and it was all because she was so pathetic. Too pathetic to keep up with her friends. Too pathetic to defeat the dwarf. Too pathetic to lift the rock. She truly deserved to die.

It didn't stop her tugging at her ankle, however, trying her very best to get it free. She sighed, her exceedingly tight boots keeping her ankle trapped in them so that she couldn't just slip them off. She started calling for help. That seemed like a good idea. Either something would come and kill her, or she'd be freed.

Unfortunately, it seemed to be the former.

She spotted a beaten and battered dwarf, in the same armour as the one she had seen before, except now badly dented, walking up the mountain side. It must have been the same one that fell off of the cliff.

She shut her eyes and flopped down, deciding to play dead. Perhaps it would pass her if it thought she was dead.

Her heart was thumping so hard that she could feel it banging against her ribcage. She prayed the dwarf wouldn't get close enough to notice the salty tears streaming down her face. She was too scared to stop them. She had the shakes, badly, and that wasn't going to make a convincing corpse. She squeezed her eyes shut, too frightened to open them. She tried. She tried desperately to will them open. She had to see the dwarf. See her final moments.

Except she couldn't. She was too scared. She was shaking, crying and too scared to think. She was about to vomit with fright.

She felt pressure on her ankle lift. She yelped, it must be freeing her before it finishes her off. She was being lifted up! It was lifting her up and holding her in its arms. What? Why was it doing that? And it wasn't in armour. That was soft clothes. She tried to listen, she had ignored all sound in the same way she had forced her eyes shut. They were saying something, but she couldn't focus on it. She couldn't hear it. Just like she couldn't open her eyes. She was too scared. It was faint.

_Come on, listen._

She tried to open her eyes, but they remained shut with force from her fear. She tried desperately, squirming with effort, but she couldn't. She scrunched up her hands as she struggled, as if pushing against some immense force.

_Gah! Come on! I just need to open them! Just a peek! No! It's so scary!_

"She's moving!" Exclaimed Vahlahn in a moment of uncharacteristic joy. He held Leine in his arms as Maialin dumped the heavy rock that had pinned her.

"Leine? Leine?" Maialin called to her, placing her hand on Leine's. "Can you hear me? You're going to be alright Leine. We took care of the dwarf. It's safe. Come on, Leine, listen to me."

"Leine! Listen to us!" Vahlahn cried. "She's in shock." He sighed.

"Leine! Focus on my voice! Come on! Calm down! You're safe." Maialin had a tear come to her own eye, seeing her friend so beaten and scared. "Leine! Please! I can't lose you! You're my best friend! Come on Leine, you're safe. You're with me. And Vahlahn. You're safe."

Leine opened her eyes.

**Author's Note: One final point. That 'Leine not opening her eyes' thing may seem a bit weird. So, to tell the truth, it's based on multiple nightmares I've had. I can't remember what scares me in them, but I remember having lots of nightmares where I'm too scared to open my eyes, no matter how much I want to. I don't like to think I'm too much of a wimp when it comes to scary things, but in nightmares, it seems the fear is overwhelming. Perhaps that's the scary part, I can't open my eyes to see it!**

**Ahem. But yes, this isn't a dream analysis, this is saying that if that behaviour in Leine seems strange, it's actually based on how I've found myself (been forced to?) behave in a couple of nightmares.**

**Great. Now I must sound like a total wuss.**


	10. A Fateful Meeting

**Author's Note: I'm _so _sorry this has taken so long to update. Well, by my standards. I really have completely lost my ability to write. This update is short. I mean, _very _short, a page and a half. I just can't do it anymore. I dunno why, I've lost all ideas for writing, all motivation, I can't come up with any concepts of events or a storyline. I just can't write anymore. And it's driving me crazy.**

**I'm leaving home for the first time in my life and moving to a new city for university in a week and a half, so I'm a bit stressed, I think that may have something to do with it.**

**Basically, I'm not convinced I can keep updating this. I might have to do something that I really will regret, and can't apologise enough for. I may have to give up. Let the story die.**

**I can't express how little I want to do this, because I have readers, and I really hate myself for letting you guys down. I can't believe I left you waiting so long and then give crappy little updates anyway, let alone giving up altogether. I'm going to try my very hardest to finish this. But this has taken my five days (I think) to get done, it's a page and a half and I've only finished at 3.00 AM in the morning because I simply can't write. And I don't normally stay up very late, but I had to get something done.**

**So I dunno what I'm gonna do. I plan to finish it, and I'm not giving up. I desperately want to finish it before I move away, because I can't see me getting it done at uni, but I'm finding it so very hard at the moment for reasons I don't know. And I've had difficulty writing before, but not like this, not so bad I simply can't do it.**

**Anyway, I'm really sorry everybody, I will do my very best to finish this, and it only won't update if I'm completely defeated. I will keep trying, and hopefully get back into writing. I might just write short chapters for a while, maybe I can handle that…**

**A FATEFUL MEETING**

The fire flickered in the usual hypnotic way fires do. Leine was huddled up close to it, shaking, with a blanket wrapped around her. She wasn't cold, it was fear, but the blanket still helped. Maialin sighed, turning away from the fire and looking out across the promptly darkening mountain.

"Sometimes I wonder how we get into these situations." Maialin sighed. "Huddled on a mountain, fire blazing, one of us sobbing…"

"Sorry." Leine sniffed. "I'm such a coward."

"All heroes are." Vahlahn smiled.

"What?" Leine asked, confused enough to stop crying.

"No hero ever wants to fight. It's always the ones that don't who become heroes. People forced into situations they don't want to be in, forced to do things they don't want to do, and people who come out on top, achieving their goals and helping others. Heroic, simple." Vahlahn explained.

"You're calling Leine a hero?" Maialin laughed. "You didn't fall down a mountain too, did you Vahlahn?" Vahlahn smiled, and even Leine seemed to snicker slightly.

"You're just jealous you're not the hero." Vahlahn mocked.

"Hey! I'm a hero!" Maialin cried, flicking her hair back. Vahlahn rose an eyebrow, seeing the scar over her eye in a neat pattern. It had previously been hidden by the long purple hair draped over her eye. It was the same as her father's. Characteristic of necromancers, some thought they were tattoos, but they were much more like scars. Vahlahn forced a smile, to keep the light hearted mood and to attempt to cheer up Leine.  
"Yeah, I can see your heroism in your nicely dyed hair, there." Vahlahn joked.  
"My hair is natural, dammit!" Maialin protested.

"It's _purple_!" Vahlahn pointed out. Leine smiled, turning around. Maialin subconsciously reached for her hair.

"Well, yeah." She blushed slightly. "What about Leine?"

"What about her? Is there any doubt she's a natural blonde?" Vahlahn sniggered.

"Hey! That's not funny!" Leine argued, despite clearly finding it very amusing.

"Oh, so it's _not _natural then?" Vahlahn laughed.

"That's not what I meant!" Leine protested. Vahlahn smiled. She had stopped shaking, and was stood, glaring at him.

"No it wasn't." He stated simply before turning away. Leine blinked in confusion, before realising her shakes had gone. She smiled to herself, slightly surprised by how much better Maialin and Vahlahn had made her feel.

Thankfully the night passed without incident, and for the first time in a long time, Leine felt safe, sleeping by the warm fire. Maialin and Vahlahn's jokes had made her feel much better, and realise there wasn't anywhere else she'd rather be.

Other than in the past. But sadly Ascalon was gone. She found herself strangely accepting of that. And what's more, she felt like a hero. Camping out on the rough mountain, facing monsters, not letter her traumatic experiences phase her. She smiled to herself. She was getting used to the adventuring life. She was brave, and she was heroic.

Leine woke up with what could only be described as a 'girly shriek' and all illusions from before she fell to sleep were shattered. She had been having nightmares about being trapped by the rocks again, and found herself shaking and cold. She felt arms wrap around her and sighed, allowing herself to rest in their comfort.

She was a little surprised to discover it was Vahlahn. He never seemed like the hugging type of person to her, but it was nice none the less. It made her feel better, but she was still shaking.

"It's okay." He said in a monotone voice, which ruined any attempt at being comforting he was trying to achieve. "It's natural to have bad dreams after what you've been through." Leine didn't quite manage a reply, and she let out an incoherent stuttering. Maialin passed her a small bowl of beans.

"Breakfast." Maialin smiled. "Eating makes people feel better. It's a proven fact." Leine's lips twitched into a smile for a moment, taking the bowl.

"Only because we half starve to death out here." She moaned.

"Well, there's a dwarves town up ahead. You can get some rest there." Vahlahn suggested. "You know, the type that's nice and safe. The Stone Summit don't cause problems there and we've left the Charr far behind us."

"Sleeping safely?" Leine repeated, her shakes stopping for a moment. "That _does _sound inviting."

"So it should. C'mon." Vhalahn gestured towards the mountain path.

The three travellers entered the town and each stopped, taking a deep breath. The dwarves gave more than casual looks at the sight of three humans within their home, and even Vahlahn felt slightly out of place. Eventually the dwarves began to get back about their business, and Maialin felt the urge to do something, rather than stand in the entrance.

"Perhaps we should find somewhere to stay." She suggested.

"I dunno if the dwarves have inns. I don't think they're used to visitors." Leine observed.

"I suggest we split up." Vahlahn decided., rather than suggested. "We need some new clothing and armour for these colder climates anyway, so Leine, you gather materials. I'll look for the inn and Maia can search for food."

"Is this just so you can lie down?" Maialin asked. Vahlahn smirked slightly.

"Of course it is." He grinned.

Leine wondered around the small dwarven town in confusion. It was odd. She spotted an established tent and wondered in, figuring the sign labelling it 'materials' was a good one.

"Urm, hello?" She asked. It was fairly dark, and she wasn't the most confident girl when it came to that.

"Hi." Came a reply. "Unusual to see another human around here."

"Another?" Leine half whimpered. A figure stepped out of the shadow.

"Yes." She replied. "I'm Arziel Roth. Who are you?"


End file.
